A man got jumped next to his car. The door opened. His dog came out and went to work.
No badge. No command. Just a black dog that would not let his person get beaten in the street.
That is still loyalty.
โWhat are we doing giving American jobs away to the Russians and Chinese? It just doesnโt make any sense, and these vessels are operating tax-free.โ
That was my fundamental question in speaking with the Tampa Bay Times (@TB_Times) about the unprecedented Jones Act waiver.
I also explained that this is โthe broadest, widest waiver weโve ever seen in the history of the Jones Act.โ
The consequences are already becoming clear. More U.S.-flag vessels are being laid up while foreign vessels perform domestic coastwise trade, taking work away from American mariners and maritime companies.
I also raised another important question: โCould there be somebody on board who has surveillance equipment?โ National security must remain part of this conversation. A strong U.S.-flag commercial fleet is essential because our military relies on American ships and American mariners when sealift is needed.
Finally, I pointed out that the waiver is not America First as it has not delivered on its stated objective. It has not produced meaningful savings at the gasoline pump, but it has shifted American jobs to foreign operators.
Other important quotes by Sam Norton, CEO of Overseas Shipholding Group and Michael Roberts, Sr. Fellow at Hudson Institute. https://t.co/Dk2BXXtFFn
My thanks to @TB_Times
for covering this important issue.
USS Texas (BB-35) sits under floodlights in a Galveston dry dock, midway through the most extensive rebuild of her 110-plus year life.
She is the last dreadnought battleship left on Earth, and the only ship in the world to have fought in both World Wars. From the North Sea in 1918 to the invasion beaches of Normandy and Southern France in 1944, then on to Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945, Texas carried her crew through nearly every major amphibious campaign of the Atlantic and Pacific without ever hauling down her flag. She lost just one sailor to enemy fire across all of it.
Few remember that Texas was also a technological pioneer. She was the first U.S. battleship built with 14-inch guns, the first to mount anti-aircraft weapons, the first to launch an aircraft, and among the earliest warships in the Navy to carry radar. By the time she was decommissioned on April 21, 1948, she had already rewritten the rules of naval gunnery twice over.
That same day, Texas became something else entirely: the first battleship in the world preserved as a permanent museum ship. Every battlewagon that followed her into retirement โ Alabama, North Carolina, Massachusetts, the Iowa-class ships โ did so because Texas proved it could be done first.
This photo, taken in October 2022 at Gulf Copper's Galveston yard, captures her a few weeks into a rebuild that would eventually replace over 700 tons of steel and consume more than 400,000 labor hours.
Decades of corrosion at her old berth near San Jacinto had left her listing hard to starboard; without this dry dock, she likely wouldn't have survived another decade afloat. She's since been refloated, and the Battleship Texas Foundation has secured her a permanent new home at Pier 15 in the Port of Galveston, with a public reopening targeted for late 2026. After more than a century, America's first battleship museum is finally getting the one thing she never had โ a home built to last.
One of our trucks. This truck is triple rated (120) and used to travel between Adelaide and Darwin with 3 trailers. Now it enjoys going between silos checking weighbridges.
๐จ BREAKING:
โIsraeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that Israel will conclude a defense partnership agreement with the United States very soon.
โIsrael is working to diversify its relations from aid to partnership.
๐จ BREAKING: President Trump has just stunned the world at NATO by cutting off ALL TRADE with Spain and their socialist leader, RIPPING the traitors for abandoning America
*Looks at his team*: "I don't want to do any more trade with them. IMMEDIATELY. Don't even TALK to them! Hopeless, BAD people."
"Let's see how hostile they are remain they CALL UP and say, 'please, please, we wanna trade with you, sir!'" ๐ฅ
"They make so much money with us. We're gonna see that they make a lot less. I want NO BUSINESS with them."
Spain is led by a socialist! FAFO!
๐บ๐ธ BREAKING โ IT'S OFFICIAL: The United States of America has broken the WORLD RECORD for the largest fireworks show in HISTORY
"BEST FIREWORKS SHOW, EVER! President DJT"
47 and Melania were spotted watching the ENTIRE THING with patriots on the National Mall all the way up to the end
850,000 SHELLS. Last year's DC 4th of July show was a mere 20,000
GOD BLESS THIS AMAZING COUNTRY! ๐บ๐ธ