Sunday, March 31, 2024
A JOYFUL EASTER TO YOU
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them,
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”
Then they remembered his words.
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
THE DIALECTICAL BOMB: How Woke Works
Excellent article from Vlad Tepes:
So the US White House proclaimed March 29 to be “Transgender Day of Visibility”.
I guess if this is the first ever one, you can’t say it wasn’t deliberately set up to insult Christianity and the celebration of Easter. Easter changes every year but, if this is the first one, then its a mighty strange coincidence that its on Easter day.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility. I call upon all Americans to join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people throughout our Nation and to work toward eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity.
After all, this is likely meant to be a provocation, so it doesn’t matter that it won’t line up next year. If they need another provocation they will make one, or move this one to Easter again next year, or by then its possible they will know the names and addresses of everyone who objected to this one.
Which got me to thinking…
I remember the early days of modern feminism. The way it worked was, women became ’empowered’ to dress and act as sexually provocatively as they wanted to. For women in a certain age bracket, there is a ton of power in that, and most cultures are based in no small part around how to corral that power so that society can work. After all, you can’t build a house if everyone is busy staring into the sun.
Miniskirts and hot pants and all kinds of ways women could make themselves appear more and more fit and willing for reproduction came into fashion. But at the same time, men became more and more limited in how they could react.
When I was a child, it was understood that if a women who showed reproductive fitness walked past a construction site, she would expect to hear noises of appreciation, from the complimentary to the vulgar. Some women liked the attention, others did not. But it was understood that if you appear a certain way, you would get that reaction near construction sites.
That may be the first time the tactic of creating a predictable reaction, and then demonizing and even criminalizing the reaction was used. At least in this author’s experience.
A variation of it is described by the Nazi, George Soros. He calls it, “Reactivity”. This is when you set things in motion and use the predictable reaction to your advantage, and against the people who probably don’t even know they are the enemy. They just reacted normally to whatever provocation was put in their field of awareness.
Islamic terrorists use another version. A second round of attacks against first responders to the first round of attacks.
Sometimes i hear the Hegelian formula of “Thesis, Counter-thesis, Solution” described as “Problem, Reaction, Solution.” One might say the miniskirt issue is that. Women first are encouraged to behave and dress in a certain way, and men will be punished for reacting in exactly the way they always have throughout history. A construction worker that wolf-whistles at a woman passing by these days would likely get fired no matter what she may do to encourage him.
Now the provocations seem to be more deliberate. Not for any other purpose but to provoke a reaction so the rapidly growing, and rapidly growing-in-omniscience state, can criminalize or otherwise disenfranchise all who resist total submission to what Stephen Coughlin refers to as a “dialectical bomb”.
We now see this used as a steady series of attacks. Covid, the Vaxx, the election theft, even the climate, which isn’t even the most brutal and obvious lie is. Still most people probably believe Global Warming from man made Co2 is a thing. But the Trans dialectic, now that is pure provocation. Pure, ‘the fight started ...
YouTube Says It Has a “Responsibility” To Manipulate Algorithms Leading Up to the 2024 Election
Google/YouTube – as far as censorship and biased political approach – are trying to use the word “responsibility” as a narrative fig leaf to cover what the giant platform is actually up to – and has been, for a long while.
Enter, YouTube’s newest chief product officer, Johanna Voolich. What are the priorities here? It could be summed up as, four R’s and One C – namely, YouTube’s “remove, raise, reward, reduce” content approach – that’s as per a blog post published by YouTube itself.
And then, C would be speculative, for “censorship” – which is what these supposedly fair and “uplifting” actions in reality end up achieving.
If you thought any of this could be achieved by YouTube without “boosting authoritative content” – think again. That is still a solid pledge, regurgitated by Voolich.
And if you thought somebody would finally come out and clearly spell out how, and according to whose definition, content gets to be dubbed “authoritative” or otherwise – just don’t hold your breath.
The sum total is ...
WTF? The DOJ is ordering Google to release the names and addresses of YouTube viewers who watched specific videos
The DOJ is ordering Google to release the names and addresses of YouTube viewers who watched specific videos.
— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) March 29, 2024
"It's unconstitutional, terrifying, & happening every day. These YouTube warrants are chilling, allowing police to target people simply for the content they consume." pic.twitter.com/pMHUhotiW9
Russell Brand Interviews Neil Oliver
Is Justice Coming For Victims of COVID Wrongful Deaths?
Tens of thousands of American families continue to demand justice for what they believe are the wrongful deaths (murders) of loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Such justice soon may be coming due in large part to the dedicated efforts of two attorneys in Florida (working pro bono) to thoroughly research the criminal codes of 25 states to identify crimes committed by various high-level officials and organizations prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the attorneys, a former prosecutor, prepared extensive legal briefs (documenting strong evidence of crimes) that have been submitted to the attorneys general of Texas and Florida—the brief was subsequently filed with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Bill Maher Finally Gets Honest on Failures Pushed by the COVID ‘Experts’ Who Ruined Lives, Caused Excess Deaths, and Resulted in Mass Censorship of Independent Voices Like Gateway Pundit
Bill Maher Drops Stunning Monologue on the COVID “Experts” Who Got It Wrong
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) March 30, 2024
“A lot of the dissenting opinions that were suppressed and ridiculed at the time have proven to be CORRECT.”
This includes, but is not limited to:
• COVID came from a lab
• Ivermectin worked
• Masks… pic.twitter.com/4w1oxeHQCO
Bill Maher Drops Stunning Monologue on the COVID “Experts” Who Got It Wrong
“A lot of the dissenting opinions that were suppressed and ridiculed at the time have proven to be CORRECT.” This includes, but is not limited to: • COVID came from a lab • Ivermectin worked • Masks offered no benefit and were harmful • Should have never kept kids out of school • Natural immunity is better than vaccinated immunity • Long COVID is often a symptom of long vax • Hospitals murdered COVID patients • COVID fatality rate and death count were highly inflated • Unvaccinated were scapegoated for the failure of the shots • Early treatment was suppressed to make way for a “vaccine” • Risks of the jab were intentionally hidden from the public • Vaccine mandates are wrong • More shots = more risk of infection • COVID shots are neither safe nor effectiveWhat Easter Means To Democrats
Biden Issues White House Proclamation Declaring EASTER to be ‘Transgender Day of Visibility’
Joe Biden has issued a White House proclamation declaring March 31 as “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
This March 31, of course, is Easter.
“On Transgender Day of Visibility, we honor the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect union — where all people are created equal and treated equally throughout their lives,” Biden wrote in the declaration.
“I am proud that my Administration has stood for justice from the start, working to ensure that the LGBTQI+ community can live openly, in safety, with dignity and respect. I am proud to have appointed transgender leaders to my Administration and to have ended the ban on transgender Americans serving openly in our military,” Biden continued.
“NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility. I call upon all Americans to join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people throughout our Nation and to work toward eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity.”
Biden, who is Catholic, has also banned religious artwork from the White House Easter egg competition.
Gov. Kathy Hochul Orders New York Landmarks Lit Up in Trans Flag Colors on Easter Sunday for Transgender Day of Visibility, Including One World Trade Center and Niagara Falls
Daughter of Zion
Glenn Schwartz and Joe Walsh
That her king is meek and lowly
Tell the daughter Zion
That her king is meek and lowly
Riding on an ass's foal
Riding on an ass's foal
Even as the prophet's told
Even as the prophet's told
I hear the multitude
I hear the multitude
Praise God
Praise God
The Genocide Double Standard
The International Court of Justice in The Hague today made an initial ruling, four weeks after an application from South Africa that accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians.
The court ordered Israel to ensure that its military does not commit acts of genocide against Palestinians, to immediately improve humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and to prevent and punish genocidal incitement against Palestinians.
However, the court stopped short of ordering Israel to end its military operations against Hamas, a nod to Israel’s right to respond in self-defense after the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
South Africa had hoped the court would order such a cessation, in effect ruling in favor of an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
The court did also call for the immediate release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Given the dreadful toll of civilian deaths in Gaza, reportedly now topping 25,000, Israel should answer questions about its conduct.
Every member of the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention has an obligation to raise concerns if they have evidence that a group of people is at risk of genocide. Given previous catastrophic failures to prevent genocide—in Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur—more referrals to the court could be good news for the protection of civilians at risk.
And unlike Russia, against which Ukraine made a complaint to the court in February 2022, Israel has indicated that it takes the charges seriously, attending the court to dispute the accusation.
In my work for the Aegis Trust, a U.K.-based nonprofit devoted to preventing genocide, I use the tools of advocacy and communication in efforts to stop the worst from happening. But I am acutely aware that persuasion can do only so much; the deterrent effect of legal sanctions and criminal justice is vital to the cause.
For the law to provide justice, however, it must be fairly and evenly applied. South Africa’s case raises the question of why Israel is accused of genocide when Hamas is not.
The fighting in and around Gaza is an asymmetric conflict, but there are two sides. Against the accusation of genocide, Israel says it is acting in self-defense, and this latest round of fighting began when Hamas slaughtered some 1,200 men, women, and children—even infants in their cribs—on October 7.
Moreover, unlike Israel, which denies any genocidal intent, Hamas has publicly espoused genocide against Israelis for decades.
Understanding Hamas’s Genocidal Ideology
How many Israelis, or Jews, or anyone else for that matter, have read the 1988 Hamas Covenant or the revised charter that was issued in 2017? With 36 articles of only a few paragraphs’ length each in the former, and 42 concise statements of general principles and objectives in the latter, both are considerably shorter and more digestible than the 782-page original German-language edition of Mein Kampf.
Moreover, unlike Hitler’s seminal work, which was not published in English until March 1939, excellent English translations of both the original Hamas Covenant and its successor can easily be found on the internet.
Released on August 18, 1988, the original covenant spells out clearly Hamas’s genocidal intentions. Accordingly, what happened in Israel on Saturday is completely in keeping with Hamas’s explicit aims and stated objectives.
It was, in fact, the inchoate realization of Hamas’s true ambitions. The most relevant of the document’s 36 articles can be summarized as falling within four main themes:
1.The complete destruction of Israel as an essential condition for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a theocratic state based on Islamic law (Sharia),
2.The need for both unrestrained and unceasing holy war (jihad) to attain the above objective,
3.The deliberate disdain for, and dismissal of, any negotiated resolution or political settlement of Jewish and Muslim claims to the Holy Land, and
4.The reinforcement of historical anti-Semitic tropes and calumnies married to sinister conspiracy theories.
Thus, as fighting rages in Israel and Gaza, and may yet escalate and spread, pleas for moderation, restraint, negotiation, and the building of pathways to peace are destined to find no purchase with Hamas.
The covenant makes clear that holy war, divinely ordained and scripturally sanctioned, is in Hamas’s DNA. Israel’s Complete and Utter Destruction The covenant opens with a message that precisely encapsulates Hamas’s master plan.
Quoting Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a constituent member (Article 2), the document proclaims, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
Lest there be any doubt about Hamas’s sanguinary aims toward Israel and the Jewish people, the introduction goes on to explain:
"This Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), clarifies its picture, reveals its identity, outlines its stand, explains its aims, speaks about its hopes, and calls for its support, adoption and joining its ranks. Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious … It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps."
After some general explanatory language about Hamas’s religious foundation and noble intentions, the covenant comes to the Islamic Resistance Movement’s raison d’être: the slaughter of Jews.
“The Day of Judgement will not come about,” it proclaims, “until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
Article 11 spells out why this annihilation of Jews is required. Palestine is described as an “Islamic Waqf”—an endowment predicated on Muslim religious, education, or charitable principles and therefore inviolate to any other peoples or religions. Accordingly, the territory that now encompasses Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank is
"consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up … This Waqf remains as long as earth and heaven remain. Any procedure in contradiction to Islamic Sharia, where Palestine is concerned, is null and void. "
In sum, any compromise over this land, including the moribund two-state solution, much less coexistence among faiths and peoples, is forbidden.
The Dirty Diddly Deeds Diddy Done Done Did Him In
Federal Case Against Diddy Expands, Subpoenas Reportedly Issued to Affiliated Corporations Amid Asset Sell-Off — Ex-Bodyguard Claims Diddy is FBI Informant
Former music mogul Suge Knight has issued a stern warning to his long-time industry rival, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, suggesting that his life may be at risk due to undisclosed “secrets.”🔥🚨BREAKING NEWS: Death Row Records founder Suge Knight warned Sean Diddy Combs that his life is in danger because of the secrets he know and the ‘little secret room they participated in.’
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) March 29, 2024
Suge stated. “I’ll tell you what, Puffy, your life is in danger ’cause you know the… pic.twitter.com/namfllXfip
TMZ obtained a copy of the audio clip from Knight’s podcast, “Collect Call,” recorded from his cell in a California state prison, currently serving a 28-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter, reveals his foreboding message.
In the audio, Knight is heard expressing concern for Diddy’s children before sharply criticizing him for tarnishing the image of hip-hop culture.
“It’s a bad day for hip-hop…for the culture…Black people, because if one looks bad, we all look bad. That’s definitely not nothing to cheer about. But I’ll tell you what, Puffy: your life is in danger. Your life is in danger ’cause you know the secrets, who’s involved in that little secret room you guys are participating in. They gonna get you if they can,” Knight warned.
THE BEGINNING OF RFK JR's "I DON'T REALLY WANT TO BE PRESIDENT" TOUR
There was a land acknowledgment at his campaign launch too. pic.twitter.com/PnJzyYI8Ed
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) March 27, 2024
Friday, March 29, 2024
MAN, PEOPLE SURE DO LOVE THE THROW AROUND THE WORD "GENOCIDE", WHEN JEWS DEFEND THEMSELVES
Nova Scotia is preparing to pass a law under the Financial Measures Act that will grant the government access to all personal health information
MUST WATCH: Nova Scotia is preparing to pass a law under the Financial Measures Act that will grant the government access to all of your personal health information. pic.twitter.com/oHYrYGDLba
— The Canadian Independent (@canindependent) March 26, 2024
Edwardsville School District Approves $6.8 Million Project to Build Gender-Neutral Bathrooms HIgh School ... So Boys Can Use Their Penises in the Presence of Girls
BREAKING: @ECUSDistrict7 school board just voted to approve a $6.8 million project to build gender-neutral bathrooms for Edwardsville HS.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 27, 2024
Now boys and girls will be able to hang out inside the bathroom area. What could possibly go wrong?!
To top it off, one of the board… pic.twitter.com/NCr7S6FVIv
Dali Cargo Ship and Port of Baltimore Update
Well done analysis...recommended viewing: In this episode – maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner – discusses the collision between MV Dali and the Baltimore Key Bridge and updates on the situation in and around the port of Baltimore.
From Gab: THERE IS NO CONSPIRACY:
Sailor here. I’m a certified master helmsman with lots of port transit time. Here’s my take on what happened with the bridge incident:
Updated with new information.
The ship in question is the MV Dali. The ship has a fixed pitch prop that makes it difficult to reverse. She has an electric bow thruster, but that only really works at slow speeds and requires electrical power.
The videos show the ship losing power and engines as it approaches the bridge. When the power goes out on a ship like that, the hydraulics that control the rudder stop working.
After losing power, the ship begins to twist in the current, with the aft sliding out of position to port.
They managed to get an auxiliary generator going, which is when the lights came back on the first time, but this did not provide power to the rudder hydraulics.
Then suddenly the engine kicks back on, which is the cause of the black smoke you see. Once the engine kicks back on, the power to the hydraulics is restored and steering is restored, but it wasn’t on long enough to maneuver the ship.
A second ill-timed power-outage seals the fate, not leaving enough time for the ship to swing to port after the current had caused it to twist.
You can seem him try to swing the rudder back over to the port side once he realizes the rudders are working again, but by then it is too late. The rudders on those ships are slow to respond. It can take over ten seconds for the rudders to swing all the way over from one side to the other.
It’s possible they managed to put the engines in reverse which would also cause the her to straighten up down the channel to port.
I’ve had power-outages like this happen on a warship at sea with far more redundancy than this cargo ship has. Things like this can happen. Even with backup generators running, managing the electrical load on a ship like this is complex. It would have taken the engineers some time to figure out how to address an outage. As you can see from the video, the outages did not last long. They just happened at the worst possible time.
There is no conspiracy.
I would need to see some proof of sabotage before I believed this was planned. Killing the power also means killing the ability to steer. If the ship can’t be steered, there’s no way to intentionally aim it at the pier.
The new info comes from this analysis by the YouTuber “whatsgoingonwithshipping” – where he displays the actual track data as opposed to me just eyeballing it.
It's remarkable to watch the video footage and notice the power going out, then come back on, and the engines rev higher (smokestack) right before the ship almost seems to steer directly into the bridge.
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) March 26, 2024
Quite remarkable.
https://t.co/LIn8b09A1W
NOTHING TO SEE HERE: P Diddy Says He and 15 Year Old Boy Are Going to Be Hanging Out and "Doing Things We Can't Disclose ... We're Going Buck-Full Crazy"
Coleman Hughes holds his own on The View, calls out Sunny Hostin for her attempts to use ad hominem attacks instead of debating his ideas
Coleman Hughes holds his own on The View, calls out Sunny Hostin for her attempts to use ad hominem attacks instead of debating his ideas.
— Te𝕏asLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) March 28, 2024
And he explains why being in favor of color blind policies instead of race-based policies is more beneficial. pic.twitter.com/ixZDy9YOGv
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Lara Logan Reports: Experts in Behavioral Analytics, Counter-Terrorism, and National Security Analyze Recent Incident
BALTIMORE UPDATE: Analysis from specialists in predictive behavioral analytics, counter-terrorism, hazardous materials, maritime attacks, cyber, national security & intel - this is their view:
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) March 28, 2024
Based on their training & experience, they believe this was two types of operation:…
BALTIMORE UPDATE: Analysis from specialists in predictive behavioral analytics, counter-terrorism, hazardous materials, maritime attacks, cyber, national security & intel – this is their view:Based on their training & experience, they believe this was two types of operation:
1) “Penetration testing” where they are probing/testing to identify vulnerabilities in our responses and defences,
AND
2) a shaping operation to set the conditions and prepare the battlefield for a potential future event.
The concern is that other critical infrastructure disruptions/hits recently that appeared to be independent, isolated events, MAY not be. For example, the Ohio chemical disaster, train derailments, fires at food processing plants etc when taken in isolation do not appear to be that significant but when taken together, could indicate shaping or stacking operations that are paving the way for a bigger event where they do any number of these types of operations together. That could potentially paralyze the U.S..
New York Times: The 5 Minutes That Brought Down the Key Bridge
BALTIMORE — “Hold all traffic on the Key Bridge.”
The terse command from an officer in Baltimore’s busy commercial shipping port was one of the first warnings of a disaster that experts now predict will transform shipping on the Eastern Seaboard and change how ships and bridges function around the world. But after the cargo ship Dali lost power early Tuesday, there were precious few minutes to act.
In those minutes, many people — from the ship’s crew, who sent out a mayday signal, to the transportation authority police officers, who stopped traffic heading onto the Francis Scott Key Bridge — did what they could to avert catastrophe, most likely saving many lives.
And yet — no matter what anyone did — several factors made catastrophe all but inevitable. When a ship of this size loses engine power, there is little to be done to correct its course, even dropping an anchor down.
And the Key Bridge was particularly vulnerable. As long ago as 1980, engineers had warned that the bridge, because of its design, would never be able to survive a direct hit from a container ship.
The collision and subsequent collapse of the bridge swallowed up seven road workers and an inspector who could not be alerted and pulled off the bridge in time; two were pulled alive out of the water, but four others are still missing and presumed dead. Two bodies were retrieved on Wednesday, authorities said.
Also caught up in the disaster were the ship’s 21 crew members, all from India, who had prepared for a long journey to Sri Lanka on the Dali. While none of them were hurt, they would be held on board for more than a day as the ship sat in the harbor, the ruins of the bridge tangled around it, as authorities began their investigation.
The accident, the deadliest bridge collapse in the United States in more than a decade, will have a lasting impact on the Port of Baltimore, with its 8,000 workers, and industries that rely on the port, which is the leading American hub for auto and other wheeled equipment, said Pete Buttigieg, the U.S. transportation secretary, on Wednesday.
“It’s difficult to overstate the impact of this collision,” Buttigieg said.
He compared the Dali, roughly as long as a city block, to the size of a U.S. aircraft carrier.
“A hundred thousand tons, all going into this pier all at once,” he said of the impact on the bridge support structure.
Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation into the accident, boarded the Dali on Tuesday night to gather documentation. They obtained data from the voyage data recorder, the equivalent of an aircraft’s black box, hoping that it could help investigators determine what led to the accident.
Buttigieg said that any private party found liable in the accident “will be held responsible.”
It was about half an hour past midnight Tuesday when the Dali, loaded with cargo containers, departed its dock, guided by two tugboats, as is customary. On board was a local harbor pilot with more than 10 years of experience and deep familiarity with Baltimore’s port, as well as an apprentice pilot in training.
The sky above the Patapsco River was clear and still, lit by a full moon.
At 1:25 a.m., after the two tugboats detached and turned back, the Dali had accelerated to about 10 mph as it approached the Key Bridge. But just then, according to a timeline released by the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday, “numerous audible alarms” started sounding on the ship.
For reasons still being investigated, the ship’s powerful propulsion system stopped. The lights flickered out.
The ship had a “complete blackout,” according to Clay Diamond, head of the American Pilots’ Association, who was briefed on the account of the pilot of the Dali. (The chair of the NTSB, Jennifer Homendy, said officials were still trying to determine whether the power failure was complete.)
The harbor pilot noticed the ship starting to swing right, in the direction of one of the piers holding up the Key Bridge. At 1:26, he called for the tugs to return; he urged the captain to try to get the engine back up and directed the crew to steer hard left. As a last ditch measure, at 1:27, he ordered the crew to throw down the port anchor.
One of the tugboats, the Eric McAllister, turned around and raced back toward the ship.
But the failures onboard were cascading. The emergency generator had kicked on, sending a puff of thick smoke belching from the ship’s exhaust stack and briefly restoring the lights, radar and steering. It did not help. With no effective propulsion, the 95,000-ton ship had become an unstoppable object, drifting toward one of the most heavily traveled bridges in Baltimore.
On land, officers with the Maryland Transportation Authority moved swiftly into action. “I need one of you guys on the South side, one of you guys on the North side, hold all traffic on the Key Bridge,” someone is heard saying on the audio recording of emergency radio traffic that night. “There’s a ship approaching that just lost their steering. So until they get that under control, we’ve got to stop all traffic.”
Vehicles were held on either side of the bridge as the ship continued its inexorable drift toward the 1.6-mile-long span.
A minute later, the officers turned their attention to several workers, some of them immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico, who were still laboring on the bridge in the chilly darkness, taking advantage of the light traffic at night to fix potholes.
“There’s a crew up there,” one officer is heard saying on the audio recording of the radio exchange between officers. “You might want to notify whoever the foreman is, see if we could get them off the bridge temporarily.”
But even then, the ship was striking the bridge. Almost at once, the pier buckled and collapsed, twisting over the ship, with its cargo containers stacked high on the deck. Then the rest of the bridge went, breaking into sections as it plummeted and splashed into the dark river waters below.
“The size and weight of these ships make them really difficult, even with propulsion, to stop them,” said Stash Pelkowski, a professor at State University of New York Maritime College and a retired Coast Guard rear admiral. With no power, he said, “There was very little the pilot or the crew on the Dali could do.”
The collapse had happened in seconds. Except for the stumps of the piers, the central span of the bridge had plunged into the frigid river — where divers would spend the whole day searching amid twisted metal for survivors — by 1:29 a.m.
“Dispatch, the whole bridge just fell down!” an officer called out. “Whoever, everybody, the whole bridge just collapsed.”
Stray ships had long been seen as a risk to the Key Bridge. Just a few years after the Baltimore structure was constructed in 1977, a vessel crash knocked down the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay, Florida, killing 35 people.
Officials acknowledged that the Key Bridge would not be able to withstand that kind of direct hit from a heavy cargo vessel. “I would have to say if that ship hit the Bay Bridge or the Key Bridge — I’m talking about the main supports, a direct hit — it would knock it down,” John Snyder, the director of engineering for the state Toll Facilities Administration told the Baltimore Sun at the time.
But building a bridge that could withstand such an impact was simply not economically feasible, he said. When the bridge was built, cargo ships were not the size they are today. A much smaller freighter did hit the bridge in 1980, but the bridge stood strong.
Minutes after the bridge collapsed Tuesday, both tugboats that had accompanied the Dali arrived on scene, followed soon by the Coast Guard and the Baltimore City Fire Department.
Two of the workers who had been on the bridge were rescued from the water. The others could not be found.
Jack Murphy, who owns Brawner Builders, the company whose workers had been on the bridge, got a phone call about the collapse and raced to the area, about a 30-minute drive away. He stayed by the bridge all night, and eventually began making calls to the men’s families.
Two workers’ bodies were discovered in a red pickup truck found near the bridge debris, police said Wednesday. They were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, an immigrant from Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, a native of Guatemala.
About 2 miles from the bridge, Andrew Middleton had been lying awake when he heard the crash. He first thought it was thunder, maybe a low-flying jet.
It was only when he awoke a few hours later that he saw the news of the collapsed bridge. “I thought to myself, I was just with those guys yesterday,” he said.
Middleton, who runs Apostleship of the Sea, a program that ministers to sailors coming through the port, had driven the ship’s captain and a few crew members to Walmart on Monday to stock up on goods for the 28-day voyage ahead — toothpaste, snacks, clothes, Bluetooth speakers.
He recalled the captain telling him their next port was Sri Lanka, but that they were taking a longer route, down around South Africa, in order to avoid recent Houthi attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea.
Middleton immediately messaged the crew on WhatsApp after hearing the news Tuesday, he said, and “they responded within a few minutes saying that everyone was OK,” he said.
Around the site of the bridge collapse, firefighters and rescuers in diving gear were swarming around the shore, followed by news crews. John McAvoy, who owns a nearby restaurant, had driven over with hot meals — chicken, crab balls and pretzel bites — to hand out to the crews.
But by nightfall Tuesday, officials had called off the rescue efforts and said they would switch to searching for bodies.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison: We’re Investigating Automakers for Making Cars That Are ‘Too Easy’ for Young People to Steal
Minnesota AG Keith Ellison on car theft:
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 24, 2024
"We are investigating 2 automakers. Their cars are too easy to steal for young people."
pic.twitter.com/RTRTm3FP5Q
During a recent appearance on MSNBC, far left Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said that he is investigating two major automakers for making cars that are too easy for young people to steal.
This is the sort of backwards thinking that the left is forcing on the rest of the country.
They don’t want to charge criminals for stealing cars, they want to attack the car makers for making the cars too easy to steal. It’s really amazing that Ellison can go on national TV and say this with a straight face.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boering Defends Daily Wire In Debate With Nick Fuentes
I was not aware Nick Fuentes was someone to take seriously at this point. This is the asshole who set up Donald Trump, in a dinner with Kanye West, in a clear attempt to destroy Trump's reputation.
Nick Fuentes is scum, in my opinion.
He walks and talks like an anti-Semite. But I would not be surprised if he is a leftist-plant, programmed to pull foolish right-wingers to the dark side (Jew-hatred).
For this reason, it may have been a good idea for Boering to debate him, because his lunacy is now being taken seriously by a sizable portion of the Right, unfortunately.
Fuentes attempts to argue that the Daily Wire is a Jewish company pushing a pro-Israel agenda. Jeremy Boering corrects Fuentes, declaring the Daily Wire to be majority-owned by Christians.
In fact, Jeremy Boering himself is a Christian.
“Nominally Christian?”
— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) June 5, 2023
I’m about as Christian as it’s possible to be, but I appreciate your perspective knowing absolutely nothing about me. https://t.co/OHJtrLYx9b
Of all the people arrested, brought up on charges for their J6 behavior, it is interesting that Nick Fuentes, like Ray Eoos, was never charged.The role of Nick Fuentes in the Jan. 6 attack is something to watch. Fuentes is a white nationalist and Holocaust-denying live streamer.
— Tom Dreisbach (@TomDreisbach) June 16, 2022
He did not breach the Capitol that day, but he has ties to multiple convicted rioters and has been subpoenaed by the J6 committee. https://t.co/rXtWdaHBT0
Baltimore Bridge Collapse NOT TERROR Says White House, Crew Argues If It Was CYBER ATTACK