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Good Friday Morning! And if you never hear from me again, it’s because I’ve figured out that I’m connected to the mysterious $1.8 billion bank account in South Carolina. State regulators “found it” and have no idea who it belongs to. How about me? Can I change the login information?
Barring that, I’ll still be here writing. This week, I will do a deep dive into the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse and cover what we know. After seeing a flood of conspiracy theories on the left and right, it seemed helpful to do. I also want to point out that the people are doing great work covering it—links to follow.
Quick Hits:
- According to US intelligence, ISIS is responsible for the terrorist attack in Moscow, Russia, where the death toll has risen to 143. Russia has tried to connect the attack to Ukraine, but everyone else is pointing to ISIS. Conspiracy theorists jumped on this because they hadn’t heard of ISIS in a while. But this is one where US intel is likely dead on the money, and not just because ISIS is claiming responsibility. In the Sahel region of Africa (the area between the Sahara and the more lush regions to the south), there’s a wide-ranging war that involves Russia, France, and, to a lesser degree, the US and China. Without going into the multi-decade history, France is trying to maintain hold over many countries that were former colonies. Russia has pushed into the region with the Wagner group to get its hands on resources and give the French a black eye. In this chaos, ISIS has stepped into power vacuums, with coups becoming more common. The top country for terrorist attacks is Burkina Faso, which experienced more attacks last year, even when you factor in the Hamas attacks in Israel. If you’d like a broader discussion, check out this video. In short, Russia is likely reaping some of the chaos it has sown in Africa. Also, the US warned Russia an attack was imminent and told Americans to avoid crowded places.
- In Texas, a hail storm ravaged a 4,000-acre solar farm. AccuWeather provided an overhead shot of the damage, which is brutal. Many things can be written about this as we witness green energy take it on the chin again. But of the states that can take this kind of beating, Texas isn’t one. The state’s energy infrastructure has taken multiple blows, from winter storms to this. I understand the desire to create green energy. But the answer is nuclear power, which is far more sustainable than this. Hail storms in Texas aren’t a rarity. Energy sources that require perfect conductions should not be a primary or secondary plan.
- OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, published a blog post on its new program: Sora. This is an AI capable of creating video. OpenAI had filmmakers and artists use the tech to create videos. Click that link and watch a few of the videos. It’s top tier CGI work. Some of those scenes are indistinguishable from the average movie/TV show. In the near future, this power will be in everyone’s hands. In related news, Amazon increased its investment into the AI firm Anthropic by $2.75 billion, which brings its overall investment to $4 billion. Anthropic created the Claude models, which are the best at writing. OpenAI has the edge with pictures and video. But the AI arms race continues to accelerate.
Where you can find me this week
Please subscribe, rate, and review my podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play — the reviews help listeners, and readers like you find me in the algorithms. Make sure to sign up for the Conservative Institute’s daily newsletter.
NBC News Needs To Admit What It Is Rather Than Attack Ronna McDaniel – Conservative Institute
Social Media’s Wild West Is Over – Conservative Institute
Ron DeSantis And Conservatism’s Winning Streak – Conservative Institute
The MV Dali Ship Crash In Baltimore – What We Know
I’m working off the belief that you’ve already seen and know about the bridge collapse in Baltimore, which appears to have killed six construction workers after a massive shipping vessel hit one of the support beams of the bridge. The event was captured on video and spawned thousands of conspiracy theories.
A few years ago, we had an international incident in the Suez Canal when the Evergreen got stuck trying to make it through. During that time, I got hooked on the reports from GCaptain and Sal Mercoglianos’s YouTube channel, “What is Going on With Shipping.” These two make a living talking about the daily news in the shipping industry, and they do a good job for the layman.
Sal, in particular, has had four great videos (all under 10 minutes), walking through what we know:
- Ship Lost Power Before Hitting Key Bridge In Baltimore (analysis of the leading video of the event).
- MV Dali Hitting Key Bridge In Baltimore—Track And Video Analysis (lining up the video with tracking coverage. This gives you a second-by-second breakdown).
- A Q&A video with Sal and GCaptain on everything they know and talking theories of how it happened.
- Who Is In Charge of the Salvage In Baltimore?
I consider them true experts for several reasons. But they proved their worth in this one because they discussed in the Q&A video that the leading theory was that the ship had bad fuel.
Their reasoning is simple: if you watch the impact video, the electricity goes out, and when it comes back on, the ship starts spewing out a massive amount of black smoke. They said this indicated an engine problem, with bad fuel as the culprit.
A few hours after they said that the Wall Street Journal released an exclusive:
A safety probe into a Baltimore bridge collapse will include whether contaminated fuel played a role in a giant cargo ship losing power and crashing into the span, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The lights on the Dali began to flicker about an hour after the ship began its voyage early Tuesday. A harbor pilot and assistant reported power issues and a loss of propulsion before the crash, according to a Coast Guard briefing report viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
“The vessel went dead, no steering power and no electronics,” said an officer aboard the ship Tuesday. “One of the engines coughed and then stopped. The smell of burned fuel was everywhere in the engine room and it was pitch black.” The ship didn’t have time to drop anchors to stop drifting, the officer said. Crew members issued a mayday call before the accident.
Blackouts at sea aren’t common, but they do happen and have long been considered a major accident risk for ships.
One cause is contaminated fuel that can create problems with the ship’s main power generators, said Fotis Pagoulatos, a naval architect in Athens. A complete blackout could result in a ship losing propulsion, he said. Smaller generators can kick in, but they can’t carry all the functions of the main ones and take time to fire up.
That would leave the central question of how bad fuel got into the ship and figuring out the series of events that led to the ship crash. According to reports, the ship crew did everything possible to stop the crash. There are no signs of any cyber-attacks or anything else triggering the crash. There’s also nothing pointing to misconduct by a pilot or anyone else.
Could that change? Sure, but there’s nothing pointing in that direction. The critical question will end up being what happened to the engines. The leading candidate is bad fuel, which could change depending on what we learn later.
In the meantime, Baltimore’s port traffic is being diverted to other places. One of those is the Port of Virginia, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. I’ve talked with friends in the area who have described all the cruise ships docking there now and many other container ships rerouting, too. It’s a mess, but that area can help lessen the burden.
Any goods impacted will obviously experience delays and more. Baltimore is a top port for car manufacturers. The ripple impacts here will occur, but they are hard to read. The car industry is experiencing a demand collapse, bringing prices down. Bizarrely, the shipping delay could help boost car prices while demand lowers.
Finally, the litigation surrounding this ship crash will take a decade. One of the lawsuits in the Evergreen/Suez Canal event was settled at the end of last year. And that was far less disastrous than this event. Some insurance estimates suggest this could be the most expensive maritime accident in history, with upwards to $4 billion on the line.
According to the WSJ, the bridge will be the easiest part of this to fund:
The bridge part of this web of claims may be the simplest to resolve. The structure cost some $60 million to build in 1977, which is around $300 million today when adjusted for inflation.
The bridge is covered by the state of Maryland’s insurance. The policy, covering property damage and business interruption for bridges and tunnels, pays up to $350 million, documents show.
The state, with its insurers in support, will likely be among many claimants that sue the Singaporean owner of the giant cargo ship that struck the bridge, seeking to recover their losses.
Because it’s an election year, Biden and Pete Buttigieg will rush to get this bridge and port back up and running. Depending on your view, this is either good news or will cause even more problems. I’ll leave it to you to decide how you’d feel if your livelihood was in Mayor Pete’s hands.
I mention livelihoods because it’s a genuine issue for the dockworkers there. The ILA union fears the loss of 2,400 jobs after the bridge collapse. There will be more fallout, too. We haven’t seen all the ripple impacts yet.
I’d fully expect this port to become a backdrop for the Trump and Biden campaigns. Infrastructure is an easy thing to toss around in a campaign. But all the politicians running around trying to claim credit could cause delays.
A report on what happened when the Suez Canal was blocked took about two years to be released. I’d expect a similar timeline on this one. The bridge may well be rebuilt before we get a full report, but leaks should give us an idea of what happened well before then.
It’s a tragedy. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones. But I’d hold off on the conspiracy theories for now.
Links of the week
Joseph I. Lieberman, 1942-2024 – John Podhoretz, Commentary
Best-selling psychologist of ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow,’ dies at 90 – NPR
Smartphones Rewired Childhood. Here’s How to Fix It: Phones have made kids sedentary, solitary, anxious, and depressed. But, says the author and psychologist, we can reverse the damage. – Jonathan Haidt, The FP
The Christine Blasey Ford Fever Dream: Kat Rosenfield on the Kavanaugh accuser’s new book, ‘One Way Back,’ and peak #MeToo. – Kat Rosenfield, The FP
Ronna McDaniel fiasco reveals chaos in upper ranks at NBC: ‘A head needs to roll’ – NYPost
DOD in early talks to fund a peacekeeping force in Gaza – Politico
Why Democrats lie about abortion – Washington Examiner
Tale of a Tampon: Scenes from a sit-in at Vanderbilt. – Suzy Weiss, The FP
Scientists uncover evidence that microplastics are contaminating archaeological remains – University of York
X/Twitter Thread(s) of the week
Coleman Hughes makes a viral appearance on The View.
Satire of the week
DeSantis Kicked Out Of Republican Party For Accomplishing Too Many Things – Babylon Bee
‘Of Course I’m Listening To You,’ Says Husband Who Is Actually Thinking About Medieval Siege Warfare Tactics – Babylon Bee
‘Our Relationship Is Not a Competition,’ Says Partner Who Is Losing – Reductress
Trump Bible Includes Pledge of Allegiance, “God Bless the USA,” “The Apprentice” Seasons 1 – 6 on Blu-Ray – The Hard Times
Boeing CEO Steps Down Amid Reports That He’s Got a Few Screws Loose – The Hard Drive
Tragic News: Prince Andrew In Perfect Health – Waterford Whispers News
Thanks for reading!