1ºChuck Ridner , nice mental disorder you have there! Did you get it from Mommy or daddy?
These are Biden indictments. You know it, I know it and so does the rest of the planet.
Democrats just trying to steal another election is all.
Putin does the same thing to his political opponents. It's only new here in the USA.
The very things Democrats accuse Trump of they actually do themselves. Everyone sees it and Trump is your next president.
If you people weren't so dumb he wouldn't have just made $4 billion and would have gone away. Now you have 4 more years and a lifetime of a new Republican MAGA party.
Sucks to be a Communist here in America, huh?
2ºQuincey Craig I saw a live video in the middle of the night shortly after the horrific accident if that's what you want to call it. I saw that ship blow out black smoke indicating full throttle so powerful that the power went out. I actually could see the boat as if it was deliberately turning to make sure it hit the pillar. Then I saw on the news that the boat actually had maintenance and that it refused to have the tugboat guidance. Something's not right how this happened in the middle of the night. When workers along the channel could not witness
3ºDavid James Well, most of the charges are New York and Georgia, neither of them are federal cases. Biden didn't indict trump, democrats didn't indict trump, neither did the DOJ. Grand juries made up of ordinary citizens indicted trump. There isn't even one speck of evidence that Biden has anything to do with any of these cases. Democrats didn't steal the last election, not one person, not one court case even came close to proving they did, in fact only thing the court cases proved is there was no election fraud that would have changed the election. Every time one of you MAGAts tries to explain Democrats all you do is describe republicans to the letter. Sucks to be a fascist in the US doesn't it? So tell us, and be honest, did your lobotomy hurt?
4ºSo main stream media is berating conspiracy theorists about what led to the bridge collapse. Top on their list is that it was not a terrorist attack. Except that the ONLY thing that NTSB publicly announced recovering was limited data from a voice recorder. And that recording includes a data dropout during the first of two blackouts. So yes, the ship was not purposely piloted directly at the pylon. However, responsible journalists would clearly state that the cause of the blackout is unknown, and at present, is not believed to be a computer-related issue. Hack remains a remote, and hopefully unlikely, possibility. Until all systems related to the power failure are investigated and a root cause is understood, proven, and possibly duplicated or repeated in a test scenario, it is simply false reporting. Sadly, that is the standard for most media. Rather make predictions and analysis than limit the report to actual facts. Regardless of the actual cause, future precautions and procedures for catastrophic events should preclude certain dooms-day scenarios. Ensuring no external network communications of on-board equipment in certain regions seems a no-brainer. In this instance, tugs accompany ships past the future bridge. Enemies and terrorist exploit holes in our system, particularly ones that we deem unreasonable. Media needs to wait for the NTSB to declare the actual power fault before dismissing remote possibilities. The current leading failure scenario is fuel contamination, but all aspects relating to power system need be investigated to determine the root cause. And just because it may not have been used here does not preclude its future use, as the current accident has exposed a weakness that can be exploited by bad actors.
5ºElizabeth Raiford it isn’t standard practice or required for tug boats to stay with the ships once they are in the passageway.
This isn’t an attack! This is a policy we have in this country due to the technology ships now have and in order to cut costs. There was nothing unusual about the procedures in this case.
“On Tuesday, a pair of tugboats operated by McAllister Towing and Transportation did just that, helping the Dali unmoor itself from the main terminal at the Port of Baltimore and orient the ship toward the open waters.
But they broke away before the massive ship navigated under the bridge,
**as is common practice. **
Minutes later, the Dali appeared to lose power and propulsion, sending the craft adrift and directly into one of the bridge’s support columns. The steel-truss bridge immediately collapsed into the frigid Patapsco River.
“We went wrong by simply equipping ships with bow and stern thrusters that we use in lieu of tugs to maneuver in and out of the ports,” Pandey said. “When we are getting into ports like Baltimore, within a few miles of the bridge, that's too important an asset that we must think of protecting it by all means possible. And we can do that. We can easily do that.”
Implementing such a practice, though, would require a significant investment for U.S. ports, which either own and operate their own tugboats or contract out for tug services. Those costs are then rolled into the ports’ fees charged to shipping companies who use their facilities.
There are a finite number of tugs, and 99.9% of the time there are no issues,” said Sal Mercogliano, a former merchant mariner and current maritime historian at Campbell University who also hosts a YouTube show called “What’s Going On With Shipping?”
“If the port required tug escorts in and out, then they would not be able to help other ships dock, and undock,” Mercogliano said. “It would need more tugs, and the question becomes, how much will this cost, and will it be passed on to the consumer?”
https://www.usatoday.com/...er/73123627007/
Because ports compete with each other for shipping business, he said, it’s unlikely that one port would mandate tug escorts unless all of the ports did it for fear of losing lucrative contracts. Shipping companies want the most efficient and cost-effective deal and will simply move to the next port if confronted with higher costs or longer waits.
6ºMultiple intel sources: Baltimore bridge collapse was an “absolutely brilliant strategic attack” on US critical infrastructure - most likely cyber - & our intel agencies know it. In information warfare terms, they just divided the US along the Mason Dixon line exactly like the Civil War.
Second busiest strategic roadway in the nation for hazardous material now down for 4-5 years - which is how long they say it will take to recover. Bridge was built specifically to move hazardous material - fuel, diesel, propane gas, nitrogen, highly flammable materials, chemicals and oversized cargo that cannot fit in the tunnels - that supply chain now crippled.
Make no mistake: this was an extraordinary attack in terms of planning, timing & execution.
The two critical components on that bridge are the two load-bearing pylons on each end, closest to the shore. They are bigger, thicker and deeper than anything else. These are the anchor points and they knew that hitting either one one of them would be a fatal wound to the integrity of the bridge.
Half a mile of bridge went in the river - likely you will have to build a new one. Also caused so much damage to the structural integrity of the bottom concrete part that you cannot see & won’t know until they take the wreckage apart. Structural destruction likely absolute.
Attack perfectly targeted.
“They have figured out how to bring us down. As long as you stay away from the teeth of the US military, you can pick the US apart. We are arrogant and ignorant - lethal combination. Obama said they would fundamentally change America and they did. We are in a free-fall ride on a roller coaster right now - no brakes - just picking up speed.”
The footage shows the cargo ship never got in the approach lane in the channel. You have to be in the channel before you get into that turn. Location was precise/deliberate: chose a bend in the river where you have to slow down and commit yourself - once you are committed in that area there is not enough room to maneuver.
Should have had a harbor pilot to pilot the boat. You are not supposed to traverse any obstacles without the harbor pilot.
They chose a full moon so they would have maximum tidal shift - rise and fall. Brisk flow in that river on a normal day & have had a lot of rain recently so water was already moving along at a good pace.
Hit it with enough kinetic energy to knock the load-bearing pylon out from under the highway - which fatally weakens the span and then 50 percent of the bridge fell into the water.
All these factors when you look at it - this is how you teach people how to do this type of attack and there are so few people left in the system who know this. We have a Junior varsity team on the field.
Tremendous navigational obstruction. Huge logistical nightmare to clean this up. Number of dead is tragic but not the whole measure of the attack.
That kind-of bridge constantly under repair - always at night because there is so much traffic and they cannot obstruct that during the day. So concern is for repair guys who were on foot (out of their vehicles) working who may now be in the water - 48 degrees at most at this time of year.
When you choke off Baltimore you have cut the main north-south hazardous corridor (I95) in half. Now has to go around the city - or go somewhere else.
To move some of that cargo through the tunnel you may be able to get a permit but those are slow to get and require an escort system that is expensive and has to be done at night.
For every $100 dollars that goes into the city, $12 comes from shipping. Believe this will cripple the city of Baltimore at a time when they do not have the resources to recover.
Copied and pasted. Not my words