Why am I not surprised? What will they do when another country issues letters of marque against US shipping? If this goes through, that will happen. Do we end up with private navies going at each other?
The bill probably won't go through... this time. But next time?
It’s hard to believe members of congress are paid for this type of work.
As Stan Rogers sang in Barrett’s Privateers… “ A letter of marque came from the King, for the scummiest vessel I’ve ever seen, goddam them all” … the vessel is the government of the USA
…this is actually a logical development in trump policies routine and we haven’t seen nothing yet
…trump is moving with a lightening speed to alienate US from the rest of the world and make is a definition of the pariah, this country will go far with this regime, buckle up americans
To stop the Barbary Pirates, operating out of the semi-autonomous North African provinces of the Ottoman Empire, from seizing American ships and holding the crews and passengers hostage.
We are in a resource war. Critical resource extraction must occur where those resources are found, often remote, dangerous, unstable regions. It's going to be much more common for private corporate interests to be threatened by proxies of rival nation-states. US military cannot guard all these dispersed private international holdings, but it can be factored into the cost of producton. Wouldn't be crazy to see something like a militarized subsidiary of BHP in a firefight with Wagner-backed rebels.
This is more common than people think. I worked at a gold mine in New Guinea where we had our own (well armed) "asset protection" team fighting the local organised crime gangs. Fortunately not many guns available to locals in PNG, but that could easily change if the wrong actors got involved.
Love this: «First, let’s call it a letter of marque and reprisal, because the Founders had better vocabulary than today’s branding consultants and definitely fewer concerns about search engine optimization.» And if you a traditionalist judge their letters should be obeyed….
Like Blackwater, like operating your concentration camps with private contractors. Avoid the accountability that self-government requires.
Why am I not surprised? What will they do when another country issues letters of marque against US shipping? If this goes through, that will happen. Do we end up with private navies going at each other?
The bill probably won't go through... this time. But next time?
Forgive me for being blunt: kakistocracy is thriving in the USA.
You're not wrong
It’s hard to believe members of congress are paid for this type of work.
As Stan Rogers sang in Barrett’s Privateers… “ A letter of marque came from the King, for the scummiest vessel I’ve ever seen, goddam them all” … the vessel is the government of the USA
…this is actually a logical development in trump policies routine and we haven’t seen nothing yet
…trump is moving with a lightening speed to alienate US from the rest of the world and make is a definition of the pariah, this country will go far with this regime, buckle up americans
Didn’t the Marines go to “the shores of Tripoli” to stop exactly this?
To stop the Barbary Pirates, operating out of the semi-autonomous North African provinces of the Ottoman Empire, from seizing American ships and holding the crews and passengers hostage.
Yes. That’s my point.
We are in a resource war. Critical resource extraction must occur where those resources are found, often remote, dangerous, unstable regions. It's going to be much more common for private corporate interests to be threatened by proxies of rival nation-states. US military cannot guard all these dispersed private international holdings, but it can be factored into the cost of producton. Wouldn't be crazy to see something like a militarized subsidiary of BHP in a firefight with Wagner-backed rebels.
This is more common than people think. I worked at a gold mine in New Guinea where we had our own (well armed) "asset protection" team fighting the local organised crime gangs. Fortunately not many guns available to locals in PNG, but that could easily change if the wrong actors got involved.
Love this: «First, let’s call it a letter of marque and reprisal, because the Founders had better vocabulary than today’s branding consultants and definitely fewer concerns about search engine optimization.» And if you a traditionalist judge their letters should be obeyed….