Brian Plautz
295 posts
Can’t believe I am here to witness and film this major historical achievement for America in person! Artemis II’s launch was a MAJOR success thanks to the incredible leadership of President Trump’s @NASA administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin @rookisaacman! I’m speechless!🇺🇸
In truth this is *supposed* to be the largest shipowner conference in North America. Once it was. Just five or six years ago maritime companies used to buy out every billboard along I-95. Every hotel within 20 miles sold out months in advance. Now it’s a ghost town. I booked a room at the host Hilton near Greenwich, CT this morning for $195. Just before COVID, rooms for next year’s event would already be gone. They just announced the conference is shutting down. Why? If you ask shipowners, they’ll tell you the United States is no longer relevant to global shipping. But there’s more to the story. Shipping started strong under Trump 1.0 until NYTimes did an expose on Elaine Chao, and her husband Mitch McConnel’s, close ties to Chinese shipping… so they turned their backs on the industry. Attendance stopped growing but remained steady. Then@PeteButtigieg absolutely refused to send anyone from DOT for four long years. Shipowners grew frustrated with Biden’s non-response in the Red and Black Seas. Then, roughly two years ago, word spread that China was tracking which owners attended shipping events in the United States. I could never fully confirm it, but the rumor was widespread and it changed behavior. Last year, European shipping agencies and owners started declining because they hate Trump. This year it’s full-blown TDS. Meanwhile, at a similar event I attended in Hamburg last year, 48,000 visitors attended with over 2,200 exhibitor booths. Shipping events around the world are setting records. And here in the United States we can’t fill an average-sized Hilton. But is America actually irrelevant to shipping? It’s true have only 82 🇺🇸 ships in international trade while China has thousands and Europeans have tens of thousands. But Wall Street is the number one source of ship finance in the world. The United States is the largest importer on Earth. We have more diplomatic leverage than any nation, as Trump just demonstrated by killing the UN @IMOHQ carbon tax. Our maritime sanctions enforcement is the strongest in the world. And our Navy is the only one capable of protecting international shipping lanes. Right now, shipowners are screaming bloody murder for U.S. Navy escorts in the Red Sea. They want the Navy to reopen the Black Sea. They want more capital from Wall Street and U.S. private equity. They want to flood American stores with imports. They want handouts from the Trump Maritime Action Plan and the SHIPS Act. They want our military to keep shipping supplies to Ukraine. And now they want us to clear mines in the Strait of Hormuz… a very dangerous job. They want all of this from the United States. But they refuse to participate. The major shipowners and CEOs won’t even take a single day to visit and hear our perspective or visit DC. The Europeans who did show up (presumably far more pro-American than those who didn’t) are mostly consumed by TDS and anti-American sentiment. They want our money. They want our service members to risk their lives in the Red Sea. But they won’t engage with us. They refuse to even show up. And the most arrogant part? I have heard repeatedly: “If Trump wants us to transit Hormuz, he should fly to London and engage with us there. We are the center of shipping, not him.” Here is reality. Yes, we hit Iran. But we don’t need their oil. We don’t need the fertilizer, the food, or the cheap Chinese products transiting those straits. America has enough wealth and resources to sustain itself. Cutting off world trade would hurt the average American. It would absolutely devastate Europe. If I were Trump, I’d keep the Strait of Hormuz closed until the CEOs of the major shipping and oil companies come to Washington. You want American escorts? You want American capital? You want American military power clearing your sea lanes? Then show up. Or stay home and explain to your shareholders why you didn’t. I’ve had enough of their arrogance. And I pray the President has too.
Unless you serve primarily Medicare/Medicaid patients and your hospital loses money on every single admission. We charge whatever we want, doesn’t mean we’ll actually get anything. Our safety net hospital is fighting to keep its doors open because others take advantage.
«جنازه ها از همه جا میره پزشکی قانونی کهریزک. انقدر حجم جنازه ها زیاده توی حیاتش چیدن. تعداد خیلی زیاد کانکس سردخانهای برای جنازه اوردن. مردم میان از بین جنازه ها شناسایی می کنند کارت ملی رو میزارن روی جنازه عکس میگیرن یه کد میدن. اجازه دفن هم نیست. خودشون به صورت گروهی میبرن دفن می کنند. گفتن تا زمان تموم شدن این وضعیت حق مراجعه بعدی ندارند. اگه خانواده ها صداشون در بیاد زمان مراجعه و ارائه کد محل دفن رو نمیگن.»
