“When I was a lad I served a term…”
[Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.]
A new US Maritime Administrator has been appointed:
…[D]uring the worst shipping crisis of the century, the US Department of Transportation, has appointed someone to the US Maritime Administration (MARAD) who is not a captain and has no commercial shipping experience.
Yesterday afternoon, President Biden announced his intention to nominate Rear Admiral Ann Phillips, US Navy (Retired), as the next US Maritime Administrator, a position that has been vacant since Rear Admiral Mark Buzby stepped down following the insurrection [sic] at the U.S. Capitol in January.
Phillips is a highly decorated Navy leader with a long list of accomplishments and is highly respected by everyone gCaptain has interviewed. She was head of the Navy’s Climate Change Task Force and is a highly sought after consultant on climate security issues. She holds an MBA. She was chairman of a local government Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience project. She once captained a Navy warship. The appointment looks great on paper except for one kinda big problem. This is not a warship position. It’s a commercial shipping appointment and she has zero experience aboard any commercial ships. She does not even have experience leading navy military sealift ships.
I’d wager that one reason she has been nominated is that she’s a woman. Another is that the Biden administration couldn’t care less about experience and the actual competent running of government.
And of course the whole thing puts me in mind of Gilbert and Sullivan. Phillips was never “a lad” and she seems to have actually “gone to sea” (“once captained a Navy warship”) so it doesn’t quite fit, and yet it still seems rather apropos for our times. I knew this song by heart as a very young child and loved it although I didn’t quite understand everything that was being said. But it’s just another illustration of Gilbert and Sullivan’s genius. “HMS Pinafore” premiered in 1878, nearly 150 years ago:
I had some fun with ‘When I Was a Lad” back in 2009…”Ruler of the Auto Industree”
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/7390.html
I think the Maritime Administration’s primary function is to run the Merchant Marine Academy. It has some sort of liaison function between the Merchant Marine and the Navy and there’s some sort of compliance function.
If Sundance is correct, the problem is that trucks which do not meet California emissions standards (as most do not) cannot traverse the distance between the border and the various ports. Stuff’s backing up because of a shortage of carrying capacity between the port and distribution centers inland. I don’t think that’s a problem the Maritime Administration can address, though they could lobby other public agencies to get on the stick.
Sitting here laughing! Gilbert & Sullivan are wonderful.
Putting in people with no relevant experience, or with negative experience, is a hallmark of this administration.
If Biden wanted a woman, he could have considered Jennifer Boykin, who is an engineer, the first woman president of Newport News Shipbuilding, and the vice president of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), located in Newport News, Virginia.
HII is the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States.
Boykin is a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in Kings Point, NY. The academy “trains cadets to serve as officers in the United States Merchant Marine, branches of the military, and the transportation industry. [emphasis ed.] Midshipmen (as students at the academy are called) are trained in different fields such as marine engineering, navigation, ship’s administration, maritime law, personnel management, international law, customs, and many other subjects important to the task of running a large ship.”
Do you suppose Biden even knows that there is a Merchant Marine Academy in the United States?
She’s an empty suit, her ‘accomplishments’ are laughable and has had an entirely politically correct career. And that’s why she was chosen.
Given her lack of experience, out of ignorance, she may make things worse but even if simply a placeholder, the democrats continue to shoot themselves in the foot.
Buy your Chistmas presents now because empty shelves are going to make for a lot of sad children.
But hey, do inherently racist white children deserve anything else but coal? Perhaps America’s retail CEOs will issue a directive that non-whites get first dibs on everything… with only non-whites allowed in the stores from 9AM to 12AM…
At this point, whoever gets appointed may just being set up as a fall guy, or girl.
“ Lad”, now that is a word my grandfather was still using. Sometimes in a phrase such as , “ When I was just a lad of a boy…” in reference to his childhood.
I grew so rich that I was sent
By a pocket borough into Parliament.
I always voted at my party’s call,
And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.
I thought so little, they rewarded me
By making me the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
He thought so little, they rewarded he
By making him the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
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@PA+CAT:
Boykin by virtue of her position is a Made Man, err Woman in the Military Industrial Mafia. The fake window-dressing job this post discusses is a sour plum consolation prize for an Also Ran.
As for that other woman:
“She was head of the Navy’s Climate Change Task Force and is a highly sought after consultant on climate security issues. She holds an MBA.”
She’s a total woke waste of oxygen. The fact that she commanded a ship means diddly squat. She would have been slipstreamed into it for political reasons. Women should not be on USN vessels. Women should NEVER be given combat commands. But y’all all learn soon enough.
“She was head of the Navy’s Climate Change Task Force” . I wonder what they do? Worry about sea level, that’s her expertise?
Agree with your assessment of the selection criteria. I’m sure the container ships will start to discharge their cargo as if the containers were on electrified, greased rails and the supply chain issues will be resolved in time for Trick or Treat.
“She was head of the Navy’s Climate Change Task Force and is a highly sought after consultant on climate security issues. She holds an MBA. She was chairman of a local government Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience project.”
Of course she was highly decorated! She fought the rising seas to a standstill! At the current rate, the surf in Boynton Beach will be up to mid-calf in 2121. I myself have advised local governments on how to avert the 2130 cow-fart apocalypse, so I definitely should be put in charge of all stockyards.
If ever an administration was topsy-turvy….
Too late for trick-or-treat, Aggie. My company helps manufacturers get their products out of the back and on the floor. Normally we are very busy now making sure all the candy gets out to be sold, so it won’t have to be marked down.
We’re not doing that. There’s not that much candy. Oh, and if you want to be sure to have those prized fun-size bars, get ’em now. For the first time in forever, certain Targets will convert the seasonal section before Halloween. There is not enough candy left to fill it out.
Walmart’s toy aisles are 1/3 full.
It is not going to be a great Christmas for me, at least in terms of paycheck.
This sure applies to the Biden administration. Lets Go Brandon.
Among the mementos I’ll be leaving daughter Lola will be a yellowed high school lit mag, vintage 1933, containing a sparky little encomium to Gilbert and Sullivan penned by the grandfather she never met, who, seated next to me at the piano, patiently shepherded his antsy boy through the playing of several of Arthur Sullivan’s songs. And of course W.S. Gilbert’s uber-witty librettos are ever-fresh sources of delight. Highly recommended: Topsy-Turvy, the superb film examining G+S’s sometimes rocky partnership — along with the mores of Victorian society — with a gimlet eye.
Thing about Gilbert and Sullivan is they were usually making fun of the ruling class, and everyone enjoyed it.
How come we are not allowed to make fun of the ruling class?
Another REMF like Austin and Milley.
Walmart’s toy aisles are 1/3 full.
It is not going to be a great Christmas for me, at least in terms of paycheck.
Do you really think President Klain cares about that ?
OlderandWheezier on October 18, 2021 at 8:05 pm said:
If ever an administration was topsy-turvy….
Le Mot Juste on October 18, 2021 at 9:30 pm said:
…Highly recommended: Topsy-Turvy, the superb film examining G+S’s sometimes rocky partnership — along with the mores of Victorian society — with a gimlet eye.
* * *
Serendipity or collusion?
The movie is really good (well, I have some dramatic-arc fixes I would have suggested if they had asked me)…caveat that the R really is deserved, for nudery in a short clip (unnecessary IMO) and implied drug use (possibly accurate, IDK).
Gordon Scott,
Truly sorry about your paycheck – this ass of a governor here in Hawaii is doing the same (albeit in a different economic sector) to me. Can totally relate.
However, I almost wish the Dems would get on with it and cancel Christmas – as I have always said they will do – and put an end to the whole commercial whoop dee do. That will separate those of us who care about ‘The reason for the season’ and we can get back to Willie K’s ‘O Holy Night’ or Bach, or whatever, and the simple contemplation of ‘The Miracle’.
He he.
14 days and the Christmas playlist goes live!
Geez, Neo. To the limited extent I can reproduce a melody…I’m banging along with this one. My folks had the record sixty-plus years ago and played it over and over. Hadn’t thought about it in half a century. Wow.
The Biden show must have somebody in charge of looking at the smart thing to do, judging it’s the smartest thing to do and then, because it’s the smartest thing to do, pitching it overboard as ineligible.
Do we know if this person has run a ship into another ship? I mean, that’s what it takes for promotion, right? Or is that sort of thing only necessary in the Army?
Setting up a pool on when the numbnutz at FB/Wikipedia/YouseTube catch on that G&S may be sarcastic toward the current “better people” and they are memory holed out of existence.
You guys want in?
Another recurring theme in Gilbert and Sullivan was ‘who you know, not what you know’ – something else that describes both this nomination in particular and the Biden administration in general.
@ Molly Brown > “and put an end to the whole commercial whoop dee do”
I try not to get anything Christmassy going until after Thanksgiving (the gifts stashed in the closet during the year’s crop of great sales doesn’t count), but I think I will pull out my well-worn copies of “The Grinch” franchise a bit early.
The animated movie is the best (after the book, of course).
Change my mind.
Never mind, don’t bother even trying.
@ Richard > “Do we know if this person has run a ship into another ship? I mean, that’s what it takes for promotion, right? Or is that sort of thing only necessary in the Army?”
I’m assuming you are one of those “anonymous people having knowledge of a situation” (does the Army have ships or was that just for the analogy??); however, the Navy will still cashier you for it (sometimes).
https://www.keloland.com/news/navy-filing-homicide-charges-against-2-ship-commanders/
https://news.yahoo.com/navy-cruiser-commanding-officer-fired-224855499.html
It’s good to be the Commander-in-chief and the hierarchy just below, who don’t have to worry about being court-martialed for incompetence,
Since I vaguely remembered some stories that were on point, I searched for “Navy ship collision” and also got this link, which references a joke I never get tired of, and also seems on point for the topic.
https://www.eaglespeak.us/2009/08/sunday-ship-history-lighthouse-joke.html
The blog header and blogger’s credentials are also germane, and I am going to see if he has anything posted about our new Maritime Administrator.
“We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose.” – President Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address
Nothing on Admiral Phillips, but there was this yesterday, if anyone is interested.
https://www.eaglespeak.us/2021/10/us-navy-office-of-naval-intelligence_18.html
U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 15 September – 13 October 2021
(document Scribd without commentary)
Too good not to share –
https://babylonbee.com/news/arms-race-heats-up-just-as-china-reveals-space-nukes-america-responds-with-trans-admiral