Comments by "Comm0ut" (@Comm0ut) on "What's Going on With Shipping?" channel.

Such "errors" would be the perfect way to do an insurance job. It's lost away from the homeland so hence not a political issue and the perps cannot be proven guilty.
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Our allies need LNG. This is strategically foolish. LNG users wiil obtain fuel. The only question is from whom and at what price. Democratic policy is NEVER about US energy security.
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Sal Mercagliano for next Secretary of Transporation! (Not joking. Most technocrats are weak communicators and the position merits a rational human unbeholden to corporates and who has never been a politician.)
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Acts of war against vessels deliberately flagged for convenience TO AVOID TAXES which help pay for naval forces should not be a US problem unless otherwise dictated by treaty. If the Marshall Islands etc care they let them build a modern navy with their revenue.
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It's junk too far gone to rehab.
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@olisk-jy9rz The US "education" system is worthless at primary school level with very few exceptions. The end of ignorance being shameful (we don't raise standards, we lower or end them) ensures things will not get better. Our ruling class once invested in schools, libraries etc because even the robber barons had ideals.
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Containers are literally disposably cheap since used boxes sell for pocket change (several thousand dollars). They should be single-use items then sold at destination and NOT returned to the seaport. Forbid the return of empty containers to jammed ports until things improve. Containers are trivially inexpensive relative to the cost of shipping them and are easily sold to private buyers to recoup some of the cost. I have four so far welded into rather nice workshop space and would buy more but prices are inflated without reason so I'll just wait until the next (inevitable, periodic) recession.
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The Old School Cold War is back. Unfortunately for the vatnik disinfo machine, we have Sal to provide detailed, educational commentary.
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The public will just elect different idiots because the public don't know how to run complex programs (either). The average voter is incompetent to participate in a democratic Republic.
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Christmas celecbrated by giving (c)ommunist China money is a dispensable ritual.
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Unlikely. People not used to the early Cold War because they're too young to have internalized that rather complex (if one was watching!) conflict along with its unwritten rules. The players are mostly "rational actors" (not to be confused with being nice!).
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What has that got to do with a dock strike? Where do you imagine food comes from? Where is the school and exactly and precisely what is happening?
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Too bad it's not armor...
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A video on applicable laws and customs of maritime warfare would be useful. Any Navy JAGs out there care to contact Sal to help put something together (with citations of which there are too few in public discussion)? For example what makes a lawful target when the enemy uses foreign civilian logistics?
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LST crew survival rates were excellent despite the drama attending the rather few losses. So for that matter were Sherman survival rates. Not everything that seems risky is as it might appear. The 8th AF lost more bomber crews than the total USMC KIA for the war.
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Shipping companies are naturally parasitic and not just by their choice of flagging. OTOH this mission can be used domestically to justify increased Navy budgets which is far more important long term than this mission. The US is first and foremost a SEA power despite the Air Force getting all the press. When the Houthi press their luck that will greenlight destroying the Yemeni armed forces but not going boots on ground.
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What do you expect, another land war? What is it you imagine should be done? Why should the US do it?
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Higher import costs make domestic production more competitive. I was alive before the race to the bottom and craven desire to source everything overseas, but most imports are not survival items. That a port strike matters so much is the result of decades of Wall Street greed, general social incompetence and the replacement of patriotism with stockholder profit at all costs. The US collectively chose its fate therefore deserves it.
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@blaydCA Attacking enemy logistics is historically lawful. Attacking random logistics not so much.
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Combat aircraft exist to put warheads on foreheads. The less meat in cockpits the better because UAS don't require CSAR or an enormously expensive training and replacement manned aircraft training pipeline.
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I don't wonder. This is just going back to early Cold War normal and even if the whole ME went up in flames that's not a "world" war, just a collection of small wars/OOTW.
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Good that you're a firefighter. Perhaps in future you might do a video or few about "What's Going On With Firefighting?" particularly in departments like yours. Drama gets headlines but as with shipping the public have little quality exposure to the details of US firefighting. Like the Merchant Marine firefighters are praised but their needs are neglected.
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Yet you decline to explain why with technical citations which suggests you are nothing of the sort. Thirdie shills are common but they're not paid enough to sound credible.
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Also key is that modules require interfaces integrated systems do not, and all that extra complexity is a weight, repair and maintenance burden. That anyone would imagine modular weapons systems are beneficial fails the sanity test because a ship can only perform one set of module dependent tasks at once! If you need both functions you cannot have that without adding more vessels, more crews and all the enormous tail which goes with them. The concept is not just unsound but idiotic, illogical and indefensible yet it was tried anyway. This tells me the US Navy is not competently managed because such nonsense should have been knifed in the crib. It's not merely insulting to our Sailors but negligent. No one will be punished, there will be no career fallout because a force which tolerates this in the first place is beyond reform or the will to reform, and the humans responsible will do other institutional damage because they're incompetent. These issues are of near-zero public interest so nothing will change.
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What I see is that harbor is effortlessly disabled by a blockship. It wouldn't take much for an adversary (small nations included who can send containers by proxy) to load a container or several with explosives and redundant detonators to blow the bottom out of (someone else's if budget matters!) container carriers in a simultaneous (or near enough) move to disable major US ports without killing anyone (or with depending on desired escalation level) outright. Future harbor modifications should include multiple access routes where practical. Ideally the bridge should be replaced by a tunnel though that's far more expensive because that permanently solves the problem. Being a strategic asset the Federal government should invest in that project. The US used to be able to do large infrastructure projects and because it did so many was rather good at it. We should remember the strategic lesson of 9/11, which is that US industrial society is easily broken at microscopic cost to the attacker. 9/11 was the worst defeat in US history by economic and social impact but much of that was due to how leadership responded. Conside the effect of blocking Baltimore, Charleston, New York and Savannah even for a short time. Humans are simple beasts and easily panicked, amplifying effects of logistic disruptions by hoarding or worse. This poses what I think is a question Sal is qualified to answer in detail and that might generate intelligent government response. What does each key US harbor require for SELF-recovery from a blockship or future accident at the worst possible location? The Navy and our shipyards should build the vessels and equipment so no one is at the mercy of private contractor availability as they may be elsewhere, though if available they could team to clear the blockage quickly. I consider Baltimore a useful civil defense recovery exercise because without something like that no serious public attention will be paid to such problems. Of course self-recovery units can deploy, train and perhaps assist useful civil engineering projects like other harbor mods if wisely configured. Sal, what do you think the US should learn from Baltimore and what would be optimal preparation? For example bridges should be sufficiently protected that no vessel can get at them. Obstacles that would ground accidents and ramming attempts (ships were hijacked thousands of years before aircraft) could be retrofitted to legacy bridges, and future crossings mandated to be tunnels where that matters.
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As if that tiny amount of radiation mattered. Tech illiteracy is a disease not a virtue.
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Containerized TEL are cheap enough they don't need to be magnificent, just plentiful. The US is fond of fielding small numbers of highly effective systems, but those systems cannot be in two places at once. Chinese ships can dispatch from Chinese ports and not enter foreign ports at all if the missiles are to be used. Chinese ships do not need to hide their missiles to be a threat, and NOT hiding them makes a credible deterrent! Chinese ships do not need to be "Q" ships though the idea excites normies. They need only be disposable missile platforms good for one launch at the beginning of conflict. The "Q" nonsense is a media distraction. As both TEL and missiles are developed the angle of launch will cease to matter. Power is easily provided by containers fitted with gensets. Fuel is easily provided by flat rack tank containers and common hose and fittings. Power and plumbing quick disconnects are long solved problems. Second-layer containers could be fitted with passageways, power raceways, piping and gasketed connections between containers like the diaphraghms between railway passenger cars but with positive mechanical connections (ideally flanged QDs but bolts work fine).. They do NOT need to remain at sea at all times which would be a maintenance nightmare. Damage control doesn't matter because no one is more expendable to Beijing than its own troops. As with Russia there is a tradition of blithely expending manpower (see Mao's comments on nuclear war and take my word for nothing). Sinkings have little domestic visibility and even less in the bloodbath of an invasion. Crew survival doesn't matter because people lost at sea can be written off as heroes. The ships could be expended during an initial launch at Taiwan and supporting targets. They are easily replaceable over time.
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@TrollingwTyrone Sounds like a good way to get ones family jewels as collar brass.
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Business is war. Labor and management in the US are enemies, and management buy media.
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The sea bottom is an impressive belt sander!
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@NotASeriousMoose The idea of a global rules based order naively presumes humans are not for the most part savage shaved apes. A power based order is far more logical but fans of rules imagine their fantasies carry weight without compulsion by armed force. Laws flow from gun barrels, not the opposite.
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If senior CIVILIAN leadership desire a particular capability they demonstrate sincerity by offering to FUND it. The Army relinquishing capability to support missions isn't equipped to perform effectively can remove temptation to send it on (even more) futile constabulary actions. Retaining broken capability implies to civilian political leaders (who reflect the proudly, fiercely militarily ignorant public who elect them) that capability remains usable with useful effect. Someone made the choice to support Gaza with inadequate resources which (key takeaway) were AssUmed able to execute. Events urinated in that punch bowl. When a resource no longer exists that constrains US options unless alternatives are funded. Not a bad way to twist arms. Inability to support Gaza options isn't strictly a bad thing. The point of that mission was an empathetic gesture. (Note conspicuous lack of European NATO partner naval support despite them being next door.) It's delay is a trifle but demonstrates lack of sufficient Naval resources for global love demonstrations let alone combat. A failure at a critical combat mission would cost US blood and treasure. Gaza is not one.
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There is another lesson US adversaries were reminded of. A few blockships (including the surprise variety where the payload is concealed in cargo) could shut down US and allied ports without much effort. Ditto the Suez and Panama canals. The US needs to invest seriously in MILITARY units able to rapidly clear the most strategically important harbors because anyone can read a map including Houthis and Beijing. Bridges where practical should be replaced by tunnels sufficiently deep to withstand sinkings above them. Of course we know this will not happen until prompted by an attack....
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@physetermacrocephalus2209 Air power works against delicat complex first world systems. Constabulary operations where the humans we kill cost almost nothing do not fare so well. Air power narcissists are too easily seduced by techno-excitement. The reality of airpower is different.
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Until intelligent discussions of the Jones Act go beyond professionals, the average moron will have the field! The general public have never been and can never be technical people who are always a tiny minority. The US shipping industry sorely needs a SIMPLE one or two paragraph "Jones Act for Retards" (not worded like that of course) ad campaign because silence ensures doom. Normies do not even know this channel or gcaptain or similar exist. Shipping is magic to morons therefore the shipping industry needs a clueful outreach campaign focusing on JOBS. Bubba and LaQueefa don't care about sealift or war or anything more complex than their last defecation, but "JOBS!" is a reliable dogwhistle that cannot be overemphasized. Videos of suitably diverse shipyard welders, fabricators and dynamic humans doing cool stuff with shiny objects are required. Anyone imagining I'm too cynical is overly naive and part of the problem.
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Now every imperfect video will be presumed AI. If it matters best to learn to analyze it professionally. If it doesn't matter then it doesn't matter.
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Your military illiteracy is showing. Bomb what specific targets to what end? Are you twelve?
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What safety gear do modern sailors of old ship designs wear while working aloft if any? Firefighters have bailout kits for rapid descent. Would a maritime version be useful given an included fall arrester?
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@nozrep Please list the affected companies currently run by "entrepreneurs" you assert exist. Otherwise that's strawmanning.
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@nozrep Please list some of them currently in power that we may look them up?
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