Why The US Merchant Marine Is Failing

Dave Gardy of Maritime TV? That Teletubby Clown? Let me guess that every one will feature Clay Maitland in a cage match with Doctor Captain Plenipotentiary Extraordinaire John A.C. Cartman

How about I ask him if we can pay for both and double KP’s budget and help the USCG get a few icebreakers while we are at it. The way I figure it all we need to do is cancel one Zumwalt class destroyer (which is useless anyway considering we can’t afford to buy bullets from its guns) and one B-2 bomber (we should be able to force the USAF’s arm on that considering they can’t operate very long overseas without us) to pay for it:

And stop asking me to cut any maritime related funding! We are already running in fumes !

You know as well as me that cuts don’t go into new programs… they get swallowed up by defense contractors. If we cut anything (including KP!) we’ll never ever see that money again. It will be wasted on something, as you would say, stooopid :money_with_wings:

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well Congress appropriates funding to the various agencies for the general operating budgets and for specific programs administered by those agencies so it only takes going to Congress and asking that in FY2019, Congress not appropriate $100M to fund KP and appropriate $100M more for the MSP

of course every KP sycophant supporter like Chucky Schumer would never allow that but I want to see someone someday put the Nation ahead of all the personal fiefdoms that is the USMMA and it is nothing more than a massive rice bowl

That’s how it’s suppose to work but we live in fairy land. Ask former SecNav O’keefe what happened when he and Ted Stevens cobbled together $2 Billion for the Merchant Marine.

It wasn’t the Washington boys who screwed that one up. It was everyone outside Washington fighting over the pot. And they fought until congress went out of session and the money disappeared.

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In government circles $100 million is small change, nobody even pays attention until you start talking about $1 billion. It should not be very hard to get another hundred million for maritime, if you can manage to get someone’s ear.

and there is the nub of this entire thread…

@john / gCaptain is making big progress. Check their twitter feed.

YouTube - Maritime Administration
Published on Jun 1, 2018

https://twitter.com/DOTMARAD

“Bravo Zulu” - gCaptain

John, here is a question to ask Admiral Buzby

why does MarAd not embrace the “entire” US industry vis. towing, offshore, et all. and get involved in developing more US flagged vessels serving in those segments (ie. my biggest bitch about foreign intrusion in the GoM)

time for them to weigh in on getting more American mariners to work on all types of vessels under the US flag since all citizen mariners are assets to our nation’s defense.

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here is a surprise find…5years old but might have been made today. nothing at all has changed since this was produced

http://www.maritimetv.com/Featured-Content/Featured-Videos/VideoId/254/Clay-Maitland-Follows-Up-On-The-US-Flag-Fleet-Situation-Full-Version

Ummm…wasn’t this supposed to have gone out as a solicitation for bids? sounds like some cozy insider backroom dealing going on since Gardy is the ultimate KP sycophant mouthpiece.

The difference is the ILA has teeth and will make it hurt if their people don’t get what they want. The maritime unions, on the other hand, are in a race to the bottom.

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He’s starting to get American industry back on its feet, maybe he would do the same for well paid American Mariner jobs.

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Instead of complaining maybe you could offer your knowledge and expertise to them. You are after all a KP kid , and a master Mariner with years of experience.

And no that’s not meant to be sarcasm.

That’s not necessarily attributable to moral weakness of the union or whatever, rather it more likely is a result of external factors, outside the union.

The ILA has a small number of people that have disproportionate power. That is the power to shut down entire ports which almost immediately impact the economy of the whole country.

While the maritime unions may have the power to stop a few ships the longshoreman’s union can stop all of them. Not many other unions have that much power.

not such a terrible idea but it would not be an easy relationship considering my well published views on forever maintaining the USMMA. That one is sacred to MarAd and any KP bashers aren’t favored sons there (especially when the one bashing the place with his pointy stick is a fellow alum ie. a turncoat traitor). … HOWEVER, if the Administrator wants a man who has worked a career from within the trenches of the industry (I really have covered the waterfront in almost 35 years now since getting my first license) and knows how to write a coherent sentence, I could be of some value to MarAd. Lots and lots of maritime potential to develop out there if the Administration could go to Congress with concrete well thought out proposals for new legislation (most of which would cost Congress not one penny of funding…just enacting new law to assist the industry in innovating new US flag maritime services or securing maritime jobs currently lost to foreign nationals)

so John, you wanna put out a feeler? I am not adverse to the idea of offering my particular iinsights and I believe have not once ever denounced Admiral Buzby so hopefully he doesn’t have any long knives ready to vivisect me?

The maritime unions should merge with the longshoremen.

If a company won’t be reasonable shutdown all its ships in every port. No line handlers, no loading/unloading. No nothing.

Why? What is the benefit to the U.S. merchant marine to double the amount of money wasted at KP to produce baby military officers and office fodder for MARAD desks? MARAD’s failure to meet many (any?) of the goals presented by its mission statement and the steady decline of the US deep sea fleet combined with lack of support for existing marine personnel in way of training and certification while continuing to throw taxpayer cash down the KP toilet just so it can keep selling rings is criminal.
Close KP, sell the property and use the money to support American mariners and American ships. We don’t need more military style cadet training schemes or future MARAD bureaucrats.

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Who says they must work on American flagged ships? There is a whole world out there to find jobs in.

We need double the funding because what’s b ing taught now is not enough to get a job. The population is on the edge of a geometric explosion and land in many countries is limited… we have no choice but to turn to sea.

We could play a major role in the growth of the oceans but only if we lead with higher l levels of technical expertise and a return of American ingenuity.

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Actually I think the ILWU has more of an economic impact that the ILA. We often think of them as one union of longshoremen across the country, but they are not. (This is not to say both entities don’t represent their respective membership that perform identical work.)

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