As Russia’s summer offensive appears to be picking up momentum, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired his military commander in a bid to shake up the leadership to hopefully turn the momentum back their favor. The commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, was fired on May 9 through a decree.
Zelensky dismisses Zaluzhnyi from military service
President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the former commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, according to a presidential decree published online on May 9.
The decree stated that Zaluzhnyi was dismissed “from military service on health grounds” and retained “the right to wear a military uniform.” The decree is dated May 8.
Zaluzhnyi will reportedly start his new role as Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.K. in the coming weeks, after being replaced by Oleksandr Syrskyi as commander-in-chief in February.
President Joe Biden made it official on May 14, 2024 when the administration announced it would be implementing a new round of tariffs targeting Chinese goods, including electric vehicles. The tariffs affect $18 billion worth of Chinese goods.
China has responded through its foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, who said China “opposes unilateral impositions of tariff,” and that his country “will take all necessary actions to protect its legitimate rights.”
There will be a new 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles implemented this year. A four-fold increase from the current rate of 25%, as well as a doubling of the 25% levy imposed on solar cells.
Tariffs on lithium batteries for electric vehicles are also set to increase from 7.5% to 25% this year, with the levy hike broadening to cover all lithium batteries by 2026….
The White House said some $18 billion worth of Chinese goods will be affected.
… China has vowed to defend its interests in the face of huge new US tariffs, and warned that the trade barrier would affect the relations between the two powerful economics….
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the country “opposes the unilateral imposition of tariffs”, which violate the World Trade Organization rules, and will take all necessary actions to protect its legitimate rights.”
Even as this blurb is being written, the Rafah offensive has begun in Gaza, an offensive the Biden administration tried to stop. First, the administration tried to halt the Rafah offensive by withholding ammunition needed by Israel for the offensive, second they withheld intelligence locating Hamas’ top leaders.
According to anonymous sources, the Israelis were informed of the intel and offered it in exchange for a halt to the then-planned Rafah offensive. The offensive began May 6, but details of the offensive, even an acknowledgment of it, have been slow in coming.
With friends like President Joe Biden, who needs enemies?
In a report released to Congress on Friday, the Biden administration concluded it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel had violated international humanitarian law using U.S. arms in Gaza. Although the report states that U.S. officials were unable to “link specific U.S. weapons to individual strikes by Israeli forces in Gaza” due to “wartime conditions,” it claims that “there have been sufficient reported incidents to raise serious concerns.”
The following sentence tells you all you need to know: “[T]he State Department has received reporting from multiple credible UN and non-governmental sources on alleged human rights violations by Israeli forces during the reporting period.”
The Washington Post reported that Biden ordered the investigation in February after congressional Democrats, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), proposed legislation to determine whether the Israel Defense Forces had used U.S.-provided arms in an unlawful manner in Gaza.
Mercenaries have existed for most of human history, likely dating from before the first established settlements, and we have certainly covered them here, in the past. While many find the practice unsavory – and it certainly can be – the fact is that it is rarely an overly dangerous occupation; if mercenaries get slammed, it is almost always because they badly failed to understand the situation they were walking into.
However, since the bizarre incident in August of 2023, where Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian Private Military Company (PMC) then known as the “Wagner Group”, apparently tried to stage a coup d’état against the government of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, the popular news media has seemingly gone “radio silent” on any talk of PMC’s that are not Russian in origin.
Beginning in the early 1990’s, with the rise of the South African company Executive Outcomes, the traditional model of mercenary endeavors, characterized by word of mouth recruiting in “ex-soldier bars” and paid for with briefcases of cash in shady deals in meeting rooms entered via the building’s back door, began to give way to a much more regularized and businesslike system, complete with formal and legally-drawn contracts, much like the old “condottieri” practices of Renaissance Italy.
Moument to the Condottiero Bartolomeo Colleoni, Venice, Italy, c.1870’s. Photo by Carlo Naya (1816–1882). Public Domain.
Executive Outcomes conducted full-scale military operations, deploying combat troops, armored vehicles, aircraft and ships against various hostile groups throughout Africa. Unfortunately for the company, they were too efficient and effective, regularly making a mockery of United Nation’s “peacekeeping” operations. Political and economic pressure against South Africa brought an end to that phase of the company – much to the cost of the people of Sierra Leone.
But Executive Outcomes was not alone, by any means. Many “pseudo” mercenary companies rose during the 1990’s, amid the fallout from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI) supplied teams of instructors to various non-Serbian states that arose from the breakup of Yugoslavia, and helped train the Croatian Army for the decisive “Operation Storm” in August if 1995, later moving on to providing higher-level staff and command training to the armies of many small nations around the world.
At this point, it should be pointed out that MPRI was founded in 1987, and was headed almost exclusively by retired United States senior officers, including Carl Vuono, a former Chief of Staff of the US Army. In effect, MPRI was a “deniable cutout” for the US government…
…In much the same way as Blackwater – now Constellis, following its corporate merger with the Triple Canopy PMC in 2014 – was essentially a deniable extension of the US government.
While most of the 90’s-era PMC’s restricted themselves to training and providing support functions to militaries around the world, such as DynCorp, which focused mainly on aviation and vehicle maintenance, and Vinnell, which focused on creating logistics and supply systems (things many world armies have only a very sketchy knowledge of), many companies – most operating out of Great Britain – offer a much wider array of services. Companies like KBR provide everything from base construction to food services support.
However, all of these companies engage in both training and providing actual “shooter teams” to their clients. In fact, Vinnell supervised at least part of the training of the Saudi Arabian National Guard during the 1970’s, and was initially given the contract to rebuild the Iraqi Army in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of that country…although the US government was apparently highly displeased with their efforts.
But to return to the present day, there are far more PMC’s operating openly throughout the world than the “popular press” seems to be aware of, such as the tiny Dyck Advisory Group from South Africa, that fought in support of the nation of Mozambique’s military forces in the Battle of Palma in 2021.
While the Wagner Group has apparently rebranded itself (in the face of competition) into the “Africa Corps” (really, the jokes write themselves, at this point), the rebranding – inspired, undoubtedly, by Wagner veterans’ very recent experiences in savage, all-out urban warfare in Ukraine – has resulted in a mature organization, offering (the support from the Russian government, obviously) a wide range of services to the nations of Africa’s “coup belt” , perhaps permanently breaking the back of France’s ancien regime in Africa once and for all. The reason for this is very simple: African’s in the former French colonies of the continent are so sick of French interference in their nations’ affairs, which has been happening since the 1950’s. The Russians may not be the “nice guys”, but they get the job done, and don’t moralize about ‘civilizing’ their “Little Brown Brothers”.
African countries that have had coups between 2020 and 2023. By WikiMedia User Discombobulates. CCA/4.0
But recently, a new play has “entered the chat”: The People’s Republic of China.
Communist China, as part of its world-spanning “Belt & Road Initiative”, has been quietly creating a wide group of companies focused in both the private military, as well as the private security (PSC) spheres. This allows Beijing all the normal advantages of deniability internationally, but also offers a little-referenced advantage domestically.
Generally speaking, national populations tend to be very touchy about the use of their military forces – staffed, usually, by their own literal sons and daughters – in both domestic security, as well as in “foreign adventures”. At the same time, few if any, of the same populations care over-much if “mercenaries” (even mercenaries from their own nation) end up as casualties in some foreign land, because – unlike the regular armed forces – mercenaries are placing themselves in harm’s way for mere money, not the immediate defense of the nation.
Beijing saw these advantages as it remodeled its economy in the 1990s, then carefully watched both the Western and Russian experiences. As a result, it has been quietly moving PMC’s and PSC’s into countries throughout the world, giving it a pseudo-military presence in all of these nations. It remains unclear how many of those states realize the implications of Chinese PMC’s and PSC’s.
As we move into the middle part of 2024, PMC’s from around the world are very much alive, and doing very well, albeit more or less out of the view of the popular press.
As the Biden administration struggles to appease both its Israel lobby and Anti-Israel enforcer base, his policies towards Israel during the Gaza war are proving to be as conflicting as the battle between these two main sources of power for the DNC is proving to be.
While the U.S. continues to block efforts by the U.N. to officially recognize Palestine as a member state, it also appears to be blocking ammunition delivery to Israel even after congress recently passed over $8 billion in war funding for the embattled nation. According to Axios, two Israeli officials have told them a scheduled major shipment of ammunition was suddenly delayed, with no announced date for a final delivery given.
A new report claims that the Biden Administration has put a hold on a new shipment of American ammunition to Israel to assist in its war against Hamas, a stunning rebuke of the United States’ strongest ally in the Middle East.
According to Axios, two Israeli officials confirmed the halt on the ammunition shipment last week, which is the first time such a shipment was denied by the Biden Administration since the devastating October 7th terrorist attacks against Israel by Hamas which launched the ongoing war.
Despite initially vowing full support for Israel at the start of the war, Biden has begun backtracking his support in recent months due to widespread riots in the U.S. against Israel, particularly on college campuses and largely carried out by Muslim Americans and young Americans. In February, the Biden Administration demanded that Israel provide proof that American weaponry was not being used to violate international law, which Israel confirmed with a signed letter in March.
In what appears to be a coordinated assault on the American republic, terrorist activists in support of the terrorist organization Hamas have been disrupting America’s college campuses, leading to class cancellations and graduation ceremony cancellations. Now, those violent assaults on college campuses are becoming more violent in action and rhetoric.
Student Terrorist Activists at George Washington University have started to call for leaders to be hung on a gallows while a Pro-Hamas terror mob in NYC was caught on camera attacking a man for committing the crime of being alive while Jewish. The violent terrorists are being groomed by college faculty, with a recent poll showing over 1/3 of students who go through these anti-American classes support physical violence as a response to speech you don’t like.
‘Off to the motherf*cking gallows with you,’ student activist yells
Video that emerged over the weekend from the pro-Palestinian occupation encampment at George Washington University shows some students gleefully cheering for their campus leaders to be executed on guillotines.
The footage was captured by a citizen journalist named “Stu” who recorded the group’s so-called “People’s Tribunal” livestreamed on Instagram.
“At the George Washington University Gaza Solidarity Encampment today, the protesters held a ‘People’s Tribunal’ where they put President Ellen Granberg, Provost Christopher Bracey, the Board of Trustees, @GWPolice, and many others on trial,” Stu posted on X on May 3.
“Is it normal for students to want to hang their provost and chop the heads off of the Board of Trustees,” Stu asked. “When will [George Washington University leaders] finally do something? If the students hurt any of these people in any way, the university will be completely at fault.”
At the George Washington University Gaza Solidarity Encampment today, the protesters held a “People’s Tribunal” where they put President Ellen Granberg, Provost Christopher Bracey, the Board of Trustees, @GWPolice, and many others on trial.
A disturbing video of a pro-Hamas mob assaulting a Jewish man near the Met Gala in New York City Monday evening shows you exactly who many of these “mostly peaceful” pro-Hamas protesters across the nation truly are: violent, hate-filled extremists. At first, the man, who was wearing a Star of David head scarf, or sudra, and the mob of anti-Israel demonstrators yelled back and forth at each other, but then somebody ripped off his head scarf.
But that wasn’t enough. Then they started pummeling him. This would be the top story in the country if this had happened to any other minority, but because the man is pro-Israel, the mainstream media is mostly avoiding the beatdown.
Watch: (Warning—disturbing footage):
“Get the f*** outta here!” one guy can be heard yelling as the fracas heated up. The Jewish man was eventually able to escape and run away, but not before suffering a few serious blows as the mob of around a dozen people surrounded him and tried to prevent his getaway. The footage was taken by a witness who took the video to the local NYPD precinct, but it’s not clear if anyone has been charged for the assault.
The video was posted to social media by the Jew Hate Database, whose website explains their purpose:
In a world increasingly shadowed by the resurgence of Jew hatred since the October 7th attacks, the Jew Hate Database emerged as a beacon of vigilance and resilience. Within the first six weeks of our inception, we garnered over 60,000 followers, a testament to the urgent need for our mission… At our core, we are passionate Jews deeply committed to the welfare of our people and the continuity of our existence…
We stand as a line of defense, setting boundaries against Jew hatred, ensuring that such actions and rhetoric do not go unchecked.
Survey comes after federal judge shouted down on campus
More than one third of Stanford University students say using physical violence to stop a speech is acceptable in at least some circumstances, according to a new report.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression conducted the survey after federal Judge Kyle Duncan’s speech on campus was shouted down last year. The report evaluated students’ perspectives about free speech on campus and protests in the aftermath of the event.
FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens told The College Fix the research found “considerably higher” support for canceling a speaker among Stanford students when compared to their peers nationwide.
The survey found 54 percent of Stanford students believed Duncan’s speech to the law school’s Federalist Society chapter should have been canceled by the administration. Additionally, 75 percent said shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking was acceptable in some circumstances.
Students at Princeton University announced that they are going on a “hunger strike for Palestine.” Reading from her phone while standing in front of a tree on which the protest sign was hung, one of the keffiyeh-clad overall-wearing students asked others to join her. The students’ demands, however, have far less to do with the war in Israel, which is the excuse for their protest, and far more to do with their own protest.
“I’m inviting any people of conscience in the Princeton community, students, faculty, alumni, to participate with the striking students in a solidarity fast. In just the last few hours, we’ve had commitments from at least six people from Princeton Theological Seminary to participate in this solidarity fast, with more coming in by the hour,” she said.
“At the Seminary,” she said, reading a statement from her phone, “we’ve also been calling our school to disclose and divest for the last several years and want to join together with the students from the University in their hunger strike. Almost every faith tradition in the world engages in the spiritual practice of fasting. The three major Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, are no exception to this.”
“Jesus himself said,” she continued, giving a version of Matthew 17:21, “‘of some evils in the world, they require both prayer and fasting,’ and we are here to live into that word.”
Only a few days before, a group of Princeton students stood before the same sign and tree, also draped in keffiyehs, which have become the fashion statement of the Gaza camp protesters. There were two women among the group of seven students, one of whom wore traditional Islamic dress and the other who wore a facemask. Each student ran a portion of their prepared statement from their phones.
The New York judge presiding over Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump has strictly limited the information a key witness for the Republican’s defense can testify about in court.
Bragg claims Trump violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) when his former attorney Michael Cohen paid pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair. According to Bragg, because the cash changed hands ahead of the 2016 election, it should have been publicly reported as a campaign expenditure.
Judge Juan Merchan, a financial supporter of Trump’s campaign opponent with a “rabid pro-Democrat bias,” has gone along with this plan by entertaining Bragg’s weak case and gagging Trump. Merchan further hindered Trump’s legal efforts by declaring former FEC Chairman Bradley Smith is only allowed to testify about limited aspects of his job.
Smith professionally enforced campaign finance laws including the one Bragg has chosen to target Trump over. He has long asserted that “almost anything a candidate does can be interpreted as intended to “influence an election” but “not every expense that might benefit a candidate is an obligation that exists solely because the person is a candidate.”
The New York Police Dept. has reported finding some disturbing and dangerous things in the possession of the Nazi Hamas supporters infesting the campus at Columbia University.
It is clear these protesters arrived on the campus of the college prepared for terrorism.
Michael Kemper, a NYPD’s chief of transit, posted photos Friday of what police confiscated from the protesters.
“For those romanticizing the protests occurring on college campuses, ‘Death to America!’ is one sentiment that runs counter to what we believe in, what we stand for, and what many have fought for on behalf of this country,” Kemper stated on X. “And if you think the words written on this piece of paper are disturbing … you should hear the vile, disgusting, hateful, & threatening words coming out of the mouths of far too many of these so called ‘peaceful protestors.’”
Kemper posted a video of a pamphlet that stated, “Death to Israeli Real Estate” and “Death to America!” The pamphlet also stated, “DISRUPT/RECLAIM/DESTROY Zionist business interests everywhere!”
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry posted on X photos of items he said the police confiscated from protesters who took over Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. The photo showed gas masks, ear plugs, helmets, goggles, tape, hammers, knives, ropes, and a book on terrorism. The book is by Charles Townshend, Professor of International History at Keele University in England. It was published in 2011 and is 161 pages.
Buildings at Columbia, Cal Poly Humboldt and Pomona have also been taken over recently by anti-Israel activists
Pro-Palestinian Rhode Island School of Design students seized their administration building on Monday night and barricaded themselves in.
Campus leaders gave them a Tuesday morning deadline to disperse but the activists remain inside.
A video posted on X shows students shimmy food up with a rope ladder to feed the activist students, who demand the art school cut all financial ties with Israel and condemn the country publicly for alleged “genocide.” They’ve reportedly taken over the second story of the building, which houses the president’s office and other financial offices.
“A livestream by the organizers showed protesters gathered in a corridor on the second floor of the building, chanting ‘Free, free Palestine,’ as security guards inside a room appeared to prevent them from entering it. Videos showed other protesters gathered outside the building,” the New York Timesreported.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams revealed that the possibility of former President Donald Trump being jailed in the state is being discussed between the mayor’s office and the New York City Department of Correction.
Adams said in a Tuesday press conference that the Department of Correction and Rikers Island would “be ready” in case Trump is jailed for violating Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order in his New York hush money trial.
The department’s commissioner “is prepared for whatever comes on Rikers Island, and I’m pretty sure she would be prepared to manage and deal with the situation,” Adams said.
“We have to adjust,” he said. “In this business, particularly around law enforcement, we have to adjust whatever comes our way, but we don’t want to deal with a hypothetical. But they’re professionals. They’ll be ready.”
The Democratic mayor referenced Harvey Weinstein’s recent transfer to the medical ward at Rikers Island to demonstrate the ability of the Department of Correction to adjust to high-profile cases.
Protesters locked arms and stood opposed to officers who the university called to disperse the encampment on campus that has been set up for more than a week. Police gave a final notice to students participating in the protest that they must leave or be arrested for criminal trespass, according to video on social media.
“Additionally, failure to immediately leave will result in disciplinary action as outlined in the Student Manual. You will be immediately placed on emergency interim leave of absence from the University,” the notice states.
“Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!” chants at the University of Chicago as protesters continue to face police following an early morning raid of the pro-Palestine encampment set up on campus pic.twitter.com/9fiMUyn1P9
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) May 7, 2024
In the early morning hours of March 26, 2024, the container ship MV Dali lost all power and steering as it attempted to depart the Port of Baltimore, heading to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Drifting with the current of the Patapsco River, and influenced by inertia, the massive ship rammed the southern support tower holding up the Francis Scott Key Bridge (also known as the “Key Bridge”). The impact resulted in the more or less instantaneous collapse of the bridge’s main span onto the ship’s bow, and causing several highway maintenance workers (working the night shift to repair potholes on the bridge) to fall into the frigid waters; tragically, although two of the workers were rescued, another six are missing and presumed dead, as of this writing (March 29). There is conjecture as to whether anyone else went into the water, as there may be other vehicles under the wreckage.
Given that less than ninety-six hours, as of this writing, have elapsed since the incident, very little hard information is available concerning the details of what actually happened. From all appearances, however, it appears that the crew and the harbor pilots aboard were caught completely by surprise. Given that, they appear to have done everything they could to try and mitigate the disaster; the ‘Mayday’ call issued by one of the harbor pilots almost certainly saved dozens of lives, by getting Maryland law enforcement and transit authorities to lock the US Highway I-695 toll booths prior to the impact.
The MV Dali is a container ship of middle size, as international cargo carriers go, being rated for just under ten thousand Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU); in practical terms for the layman, this equates to carrying the equivalent of about 5,000 semi-truck trailers as cargo; in contrast, the EVER GIVEN, which grounded and blocked both directions of the Suez Canal almost exactly three years ago, on March 23, 2021, is one of the largest container ships in the world, clocking in at over 20,000 TEU’s. The Dali is homeported in Singapore, but is currently under lease to the MAERSK line, one of the leading shippers in the world, and was operating with a crew of 22 from India. Despite very ugly comments from certain sectors, nothing appears to have been wrong with the crew’s performance. Similarly, the ship was in good repair, having been inspected at previous ports of call, as well as in the Port of Baltimore itself. Singapore is very careful about keeping vessels it has granted a flag to, to maintaining a high standard of operations and repair.
Perhaps inevitably, the sun had barely risen over the accident scene before speculation began to run wild online, with breathlessly frenetic claims ranging from insurance scams to cyber hacking, to an attack by “Insert Foreign Entity Here”, to a “Black Swan”/“false flag” event sparked by “Insert Portion of the US Government Here”. While many, if not most, such ideas border on the demented, given the events of the preceding two or three decades – depending on where the counting begins – they do need to be looked into, at some realistic level.
That is what we will now proceed to.
Conspiracy – or Accident?
The first thing to understand is that maritime accidents happen all the time. The Dali itself had a docking accident in 2016, and there is the EVER GIVEN incident referenced above. There was actually a ship grounding in 2022 in Baltimore…things happen all the time and sometimes, they happen in the worst possible places.
This incident is almost certainly just as it appears: a devastating and tragic accident, occurring at precisely the worst place and time…
However…People jumping to a conspiratorial view of this incident are not necessarily kooks and weirdoes – although there are, of course the obligatory “occult” explanations that are…”inventively creative” is probably the best term.
There seems to have been nothing wrong as the Dali was towed away from the dock by Port of Baltimore tugboats. The ship was escorted by tugs to make a tight U-Turn as it left dockside, and began to build up speed; this is a completely normal procedure for most large vessels when leaving port. Neither was its acceleration to c.8 knots (9 mph/15 kph) unusual for its position in the Patapsco River’s channel. Likewise, the tugboats disconnecting as the Dali completed its U-Turn unusual; again, this is completely normal procedure for leaving port.
The problems begin as the ship neared the bridge. Videos of the ship approaching the bridge clearly show its lights shutting off, followed it beginning to drift. The Dali displaces nearly 149,000 tons, is nearly 1,000 feet in length, and stands nearly 100 feet from the surface to its highest point. Losing power to engines, steering or both, renders ships of this size completely at the mercy of both wind and current, as is shows by the ship immediately beginning to drift in the current. The crew apparently tried an emergency restart on the ship’s generators, producing the cloud of smoke seen in the video, and a momentary restoration of power…By then, however, it was too late, as the power failure occurred as the ship was less than a mile from the bridge – ships this large cannot stop on a dime, and by the time power was restored, it was far too late to correct the drift.
One underhanded and disingenuous tactic used by various “conspiracy theorists” (as opposed to “conspiracy analysts”) is to make assessments based on sped-up versions of the video. This kind of gaslighting warps the perspective of the unwary and/or inexperienced viewer; it is very much the kind of behavior that gives “independent researchers” a bad name.
But…the timing of the power loss is frankly suspicious, as it occurred at precisely the worst possible moment, where the crew and pilots would have essentially no way of diverting – much less stopping – the vessel, preventing an impact with the bridge.
Likewise, there is nothing unusual about the ship being able to knock the bridge down. The Francis Scott Key Bridge began construction in 1972, and opened in 1977. Commercial ships were far smaller in those days, but even so, a large vessel ramming the bridge supports head-on – deliberate or not – would almost certainly cause a catastrophic collapse; this would be the case with most bridges in the world, then as now. If there was a serious fault in the bridge’s design, it was in the near-total lack of protective “dolphin” barriers to protect the bridge supports, which certainly allowed the Dali to strike the support tower directly.
Comments have questioned what appears to be a “dynamite charge” exploding at the moment of impact, directly above the bow of the ship. In reality, this was a power cable running along the top of the bridge girders snapping, throwing off a shower of sparks as it separated…It was not an explosive, nor was it a thermite [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermite] charge – that is not how those things work…
…Still, the timing remains highly questionable. Based on the notion that this was a deliberate act of sabotage, we will now look at potential “Who’s” and “Why’s”.
Who?
Assuming that this was a deliberate act, one in which the ship’s control systems were hacked or sabotaged in some other way, the first question to ask is “Who” would carry out such an attack?
The number of groups around the world with the capacity to hack a commercial vessel at precisely the right time and place to cause significant damage is almost too large to calculate. At the same time, such a “hostile foreign entity” would have to have very precise and highly detailed intelligence on the vessel and the Port of Baltimore in order to carry out their attack effectively. While certainly difficult, such a potentially hostile foreign entity could well have such a capability.
The next potential culprit, unfortunately, consists of any number of factions within the power structures of the United States Government, itself. This is, sadly, a significant possibility, given the relentless exposure of the openly hostile and highly illegal actions carried out by various groups within the US Government over the course of the last seventy-odd years, if not more, actions that range from COINTELPRO, to Project Megiddo, to the Library Awareness Program, to any number of operations carried out in the aftermath of the 9-11 Attacks.
Why?
The next question to answer – or at least try to puzzle out – would be “Why?”
For a hostile foreign actor – whether a state like Communist China, North Korea, Russia, etc., or some flavor of terror group – shutting down a major US oceanic port for one or two months (the initial estimate of the time needed to clear the channel of debris to allow the Port of Baltimore to reopen), especially given the presence of a four-ship squadron of the Department of Transportation’s “Ready Reserve Fleet” (RRF) which supports the US Navy around the world, is definitely attractive. At the same time, while certainly a serious situation for strategic operations, this is actually not that critical of a problem, as there is redundancy built into the RRF for such situations.
MARAD Ready Reserve Fleet ship locations, 2021. USDoT. Public Domain.
What is much more serious, is the effective closure – even if temporary – of one of the busiest commercial ports in the world. Currently, projected losses are estimated at some $15 billion dollars per day, as well as closing access to the largest port importing cars into the United States. Added to this is the potential impact on the jobs of some 8,000 people in Baltimore, if not more. Overall, this is not a blow that Baltimore can easily deal with, as the port has been the only economic engine keeping the city financially above water.
Clearly, these results are highly desirable for any foreign actor.
Conversely, there is the notion of a deliberate act engineered by factions within the US government. While this possibility cannot be reasonably dismissed out of hand, it is difficult to see what they gain would be.
A simple insurance scam is rather pointless, as is the idea that delaying the ship’s cargo delivery to Sri Lanka is of such importance that it would require crippling a large vessel and blocking a major port. Similarly, staging such an incident to divert attention away from any number of ongoing political, legal, military or social issues currently plaguing the United States is hard to grasp, as even the “alternative media” is still talking about many issues besides this disaster…
Follow-throughs…?
…In both circumstances – a foreign enemy or an internal one – the telling question is the lack of “follow-on” attack[s]. When the Imperial Japanese Navy completed its raid on the US military bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, it did not stop there. The Japanese military capitalized on its devastating strike, and launched a series of massive offensive operations throughout China and the Western Pacific region simultaneous to their attack. This is common throughout history – one does not commit to a major attack on a location without an immediate follow-up attack, singly or in quantity. The expenditure of assets – financial and military – simply is not worth the effort is there is no follow-on operation to capitalize on a successful strike.
Conclusion
This last point is really the best argument in favor of this entire affair being a simple, tragic accident, one that is having an impact far outside its mechanical circumstances.
There are conspiracies aplenty in the modern world. It is important to carefully examine sudden events to see if ulterior motives are factors, and spell out such motives if they are identified…at the same time, it is equally important to not assume that a conspiracy exists where it does not. That requires careful and sober examination of the incident in question.
However, just because a conspiracy is not immediately evident, that does not prevent such a situation from being exploited by the unscrupulous…as has happened before.
Forewarned is forearmed.
The Freedomist — Keeping Watch, So You Don’t Have To
An Illegal Alien allegedly shot another illegal alien and trans “woman” but won’t be charged for the alleged crime because the witness, the shot trans “woman,” won’t cooperate with authorities. The Illegal in question was already arrested for gun violations but let go. Now, thanks to an Obama-appointed Judge, this illegal can “legally” continue to possess guns.
Early one mild morning last month, a transgender woman who recently migrated from Venezuela was waiting for a ride outside a Little Village nightclub when a driver pulled up and made an ominous remark in Spanish.
“Bad gay,” he allegedly said before firing three shots at the woman around 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 4. She was struck in the groin and both legs and left in critical condition, according to Chicago police records.
The suspect was a Venezuelan man — unnamed in various reports — linked by federal authorities to Venezuela’s El Tren De Aragua drug and sex trafficking cartel.
“While he had been identified as the gunman and police had recovered key evidence,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times, “including a shell casing and video of the Ford Explorer used in the attack — Cook County prosecutors wouldn’t bring charges.” The police explained that their “one witness who can positively identify the gunman will not cooperate any further.”
It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out why that might be. The shooter is on the loose and the only witness is a trans hooker who has already been shot three times.
But here’s the kicker. The suspect had been arrested just two days earlier in Austin and “hit with a list of charges, including felonies for illegally possessing a gun and ammunition.” But the judge there let him go, too.
The National Security Innovation Base (NSIB) Report Card for America’s Defensive Tech was released this week, giving the sector alarmingly poor marks. The report suggests there are “major warning signs” the defensive tech industry has reached a critical fail point as innovation appears to have ground to a halt, with no signs the innovation advantage can be regained anytime soon.
“Major warning signs” in the national security sector could hold back America’s ability to innovate at a crucial moment in the intensifying global competition with adversaries such as Russia and China, according to a report made public Tuesday.
The National Security Innovation Base (NSIB) Report Card, released by the Ronald Reagan Institute’s Center for Peace Through Strength, offers a deep dive into the overall health of American defense innovation. The Reagan foundation’s National Security Innovation Base Program said the report card examines “national security agencies and organizations, various research centers and laboratories, universities and academia, traditional defense ‘primes,’ commercial sector disruptors, venture capital and the innovative systems of American allies and partners” around the world, providing a comprehensive snapshot of the national security sector.
The Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, is claiming NATO troops have already entered Ukraine. He made the statement after Russia warned that such a move would lead to direct confrontation.
The Minister stated, “NATO soldiers are already present in Ukraine. And I would like to warmly thank the ambassadors of those states that have taken that risk. Those who are those states know who they are, but you can’t disclose that, yes in contrary to other politicians I won’t list those countries.”
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