Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Bark louder, little dog.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

The willow is too close to the house.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Monday Morning Open Thread: The EVER GIVEN Floats Again

Monday Morning Open Thread: The EVER GIVEN Floats Again

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It was fun while it lasted, for those of us not working the Suez Canal or waiting for cargo. Latest press photos show considerable damage along the canal banks — not nearly all of it attributable to this one mishap — and the Ever Given is still, as far as I can tell, seriously testing its boundaries…

The memes, of course, will go on…

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Just dropping in to say Lyriel was born yesterday afternoon app 2:00 pm weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz (sonogram tech was just a little off with her weight estimation) with 10 fingers, 10 toes, 2 eyes, one nose and a big squalling voice.

  11. 11.

    Geminid

    Last night’s full moon may have made a difference, providing a little extra oomph to the high tide. A very pretty moon, that just set here.

  16. 16.

    The Thin Black Duke

    To add to this morning’s good news, my latest essay is up on Medium. It’s a rant about how the success of female musicians all to often puts them on a bull’s-eye. Sometimes it seems that moving gargantuan cargo ships is easier.

  20. 20.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Finally – those delayed dragon toys will find new canals to plug….

  21. 21.

    Geminid

    @NotMax: They don’t call it a “King Tide” for nuthin’

    The full moon tide is especially strong around the Equinox.

  23. 23.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: Hip hip hooray! St. Ozark’s Day!  In this case, the sonogram over-calculation undoubtedly ended up as a blessing for your daughter in law.

  29. 29.

    Barbara

    I wish they would give up and just admit that estimating size at 40 weeks is too hard. My high risk OB was off by more than a pound and I told him he was wrong because I had a prior experience that told me the babies were pretty close in size. I was right.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    A pity about that boat that fell on the road in the last tweet. It was a good looking vessel. BTW, I don’t know how often boats that have fallen off trailers and onto the road are seen in other states, but it’s pretty dang common in Florida. I usually assume the skipper had too many beers and failed to secure it to the trailer properly, though sober incompetence would explain it too. When a boat on a trailer is on the highway ahead of me, I either pass it or stay well back.

  34. 34.

    raven

    The National Black Justice Coalition is calling on the PGA Tour and Masters Tournament to pull the upcoming event from Augusta National Golf Club in reaction to the recent passing of Georgia’s voter bill, SB 202.
    The NBJC is also urging professional golfers to boycott playing in Georgia until the bill is repealed.
    NBJC executive director David J. Johns said the law was created to restrict the voting rights of Black and disenfranchised voters in Georgia.

    Yea, that’s going to happen.

  39. 39.

    raven

    @Betty Cracker: I had a bearing go on my boat trailer so I disconnected it,  pushed my 14 ft alumcraft  up into the bed, and dragged the trailer 30 miles on a floppy wheel. It trashed the axle but I go home.

  44. 44.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Betty Cracker: One time I was following an RV with a big, clamshell storage thingy on the top and the clamshell came off. It sort of tumbled slowly toward my windshield but luckily blew off to the side. It happened so quickly and was so unexpected that I was only scared afterwards.

  45. 45.

    HeleninEire

    @Immanentize: I am glad I am here. They are having serious vaccination problems. No one can find one yet they had a doctor at a private hospital giving them away to friends and family. I feel awful for my friends.

    I’ve made hotel reservations for September but I’m not sure they will let me in without a quarantine even 6 months from now.

  52. 52.

    Soprano2

    Congrats Ozark on your new granddaughter!

    When I was a kid my mother was driving our pickup on the highway when suddenly there was a “thunk” and a bunch of brown liquid spread all across the windshield. A paper carton of chocolate milk had flown off a truck she was following and hit the windshield! She was lucky she didn’t have an accident.

  64. 64.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks. And yeah, I think Billie’s family plays a big part in keeping her normal. To contrast and compare, look at how Drew Barrymore’s mother comodified her daughter’s success. Drew is lucky to be alive, quite frankly.

  68. 68.

    Ken

    I’m half-expecting the Ever Given to get about fifty yards further along the canal and get stuck again.

    (Or is it farther….)

  69. 69.

    jonas

    Two of the funnier takes on the EverGiven from the past couple of days: 1. The Onion’s “man on the street” photo poll asks about people’s response to the stuck ship. One reply: “You’d get there faster taking residential canals…” 2. Meme with a middle-aged white woman at a table staring thoughtfully at a laptop as she writes ” “and I had to wonder – was I not also stuck in my own sort of spiritual Suez Canal?”

  76. 76.

    Immanentize

    ALERT ! NEW BJ SITE ISSUE!
    My front page is freezing on this post? I get to the tweets and it just freezes. I am on a One Plus, android 10, OxygenOS 10.3.9.
    I can jump to cmments and no problema.

    Thank you, Good Gremlins, for your attention to this issue.

  77. 77.

    Immanentize

    @Ken: I think it is high time that Democrats propose a New Evergreen Deal to get that cargo carrier moving!

    As for “partially re-floated,” it looks like the stern is free, but the bow is still aground.

  78. 78.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I am slightly amused by the idea that people don’t think global logistics firms game out the risk for and then price in “what happens if [shipping choke point] is denied for a period of time?” when talking about Our Fragile Neoliberal Globalist Supply Chains

    Sure, the plan is “I will be not working here when that bad day happens”

    This gets back to NeoLiberal mantra of infrastructure is a problem best ignored. As in – lets do all our manufacturing in China, ship it by boat and not build the port facilities on the west coast to handle it then whine about how come container ships are anchored off the break water at Long Beach waiting two weeks to merely enter the port.

  79. 79.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Nooooooooooo….

    These dragon toys would definitely NOT be of the type that would make their way into the Dollar Store inventory (but which make the Dollar Store A LOT more interesting to visit than it is).  ??

  80. 80.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @WereBear: Yeah. There was a very good reason why Michael always referred to his father in interviews as “Mr. Jackson.”

  82. 82.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Good essay. I just can’t understand the mindset of men that stalk these famous women. They’re total strangers. I guess they develop some delusional parasocial relationship with them and probably already had some issues. Add in sexism and entitlement and viola I suppose.

    I feel sorry for celebrities in general. They seem like they live very closed off lives out of necessity.

  84. 84.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Not to mention that some brilliant soul engineered an ocean barge so gargantuan that it would be a nightmare to deal with if anything went wrong, AND that some profit seeking shipping magnates thought it sounded like a good idea.

    I saw some business gollum on Twitter was blaming the Egyptian government for not expanding the canal to match size of mega barges.

  87. 87.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: As for “partially re-floated,” it looks like the stern is free, but the bow is still aground.

    ENGINEERS: We have freed the stern…

    CEOS AND PRESS: Yay!

    ENGINEERS: …but in the process, we pushed the bow even deeper into the opposite bank.

  88. 88.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Ken: 

    I’m half-expecting the Ever Given to get about fifty yards further along the canal and get stuck again.

    Congratulations, that is exactly what happened. High winds. It’s stuck again, folks.

  89. 89.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Ken:

    Im certain there is already a meme of some guy standing on the bank saying “turn, turn, TURN MORE GODDAMMIT, okay okay okay slow stop STOP!!!”

  91. 91.

    Spanky

    Ya know, the Oregon Highway Dept had the solution to disposing of that beached whale some years ago. Maybe the Egyptians should give them a call.

  92. 92.

    Ken

    @Frankensteinbeck: It’s stuck again, folks.

    Link? The Google just shows me “ship freed” stories. Admittedly they’re all about 30 minutes old, an eternity in internet news terms.

  93. 93.

    david

    @Baud: Yeah, but the blockage usually travels south when unplugged.  This thing is heading even farther up the canal!

  95. 95.

    Ken

    @Spanky: We discussed the nuclear option a few days ago. I think there was consensus (among those of us on a different continent) that it was perfectly workable and had no drawbacks.

  97. 97.

    Ken

    @Spanky: Yes, though it would be more of a turning basin, for those surely-not-infrequent cases where a ship gets halfway through the canal and realizes they made a wrong turn somewhere.

  98. 98.

    sdhays

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I haven’t been following this that closely, but it does seem that the Egyptian government should take some responsibility for imposing limits on the size of ships allowed to enter the canal. Presumably they’re going to start doing that once this obstruction is out.

  99. 99.

    Elizabelle

    WRT the Ever Given:  its owners are going to get sued up the wazoo over this episode.

    Why did the canal owners ever greenlight such a behemoth?  Does anyone think that ships this massive should not be allowed to use the Suez Canal?  (This ship was built out to the foot of maximum permitted length.  That one is on the canal operators.)

    Greed outruns safety, again and again and again.  This ship, as long as it is, and configured with containers stacked 10 high, is ridiculous.  No margin for error.

    You see the same thing with cruise ships, which are way too big and lead to overtourism.  Also the tragic Conception dive boat fire in California — that looked like the worst and most dangerous hostel ever, and it kind of met  US Coast Guard standards, which are way too lax.  (The Conception’s staff was not performing the required roving night patrol, but 30 plus people sleeping underdeck, with one, at most two exits?  Come on!)

    Apologists for greed and self-interest will say “but so many people benefit by the lower prices”, but they never price in all the factors.

  100. 100.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    This bit

    In a request filed in LA county court, Eilish, 19, said that 23-year-old John Hearle had been camping outside a school across the road from the family residence and “perching” on the school’s fence to look into her home. She said Hearle had harassed and threatened her, making a throat-slitting gesture when he sees her.

    Just damn. That guy is messed up.

  101. 101.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Spanky:

    (bends down, peering at it) “Don’t worry about it. It’s just a scratch and will buff right out.” (dismissive hand wave follows)

  102. 102.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Ken:  As I recall, the post-war Soviets used that technique with regard to large earthmoving projects to aid navigation.

    There were drawbacks that manifested themselves.

  103. 103.

    jonas

    @Elizabelle: Ships as large as EverGiven go through the canal all the time with no problem. The lesson learned here (unless it comes out that there was serious pilot error of some kind) is that the canal authorities will have to hold up passage of these mega-container ships when there are cross winds over so many knots. During certain times of the year, that will cause delays, but shipping companies can plan around that and take other routes if necessary.

  105. 105.

    danielx

    Don’t know if I have noted this before, although I’m sure others have: it’s amazing how restful it is having a president who is NOT obsessed with being the center of attention 24/7/365.

    Also too: there’s been a battle at Chez X ongoing for two months between two tabbies over just who is going to be the alpha cat. It’s becoming tiresome.

  106. 106.

    Amir Khalid

    @rikyrah:
    RIP Mama Sarah. We came from God, and we return to God. She lived a righteous life and did jihad in bringing young people to education. She will be among the blessed in Heaven.

  107. 107.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Elizabelle:

     

    WRT cruise ships: Key West has decided to really throttle that – they had a local vote in November to only allow 1500 disembarked PAX per day, as well as a capacity limit on boats allowed to dock (no more than 1300 PAX and crew). Complaints (which are valid) are that there are major degradations to diving and fishing, all of which I’ve seen just over the last 10 years and would probably avoid doing again. Also, lower Duval has gone to shit, and is loaded primarily with Tshirt and $5 trinket shops, as budget cruisers don’t actually spend real money there. What the merchants, bars and restauranteurs want are either longer stays by people in hotels or manageable smaller groups of cruisers with money to spend and proper travel attitudes.

    Standing in opposition are CLIA (the cruise line association), the dude who runs the docking concession and the GOP contingent in Tallahassee, which has seized on the “there are bunches of minimum wage jerbs at tshirt shops at risk” argument while taking behemoth contributions from the cruise lines in order to foment a law which takes (effectively) only Key West’s ability to control its port.

    WRT the Concepcion fire, there were vicious arguments in the dive community between SoCal divers who love the cheapness of their dangerous cattle boats and literally everybody else who looked on in horror as to how and why it happened. Literally, for a few hundred dollars more, a diver can do an uncrowded, safe liveaboard anywhere else in the world.

  108. 108.

    Elizabelle

    @jonas:   Most dive boats don’t catch fire either, until they do.

    A lot of Max8s flew safely.  Until two did not.  In the aftermath, a lot of overconfident pilots (particularly Americans) have been telling us it’s poorly trained foreign cockpit crews, but Boeing’s engineers knew better.

    These behemoths have been traversing the canal, true, and a lot of eyebrows were raised that this one sailed into a sandstorm with high winds.

    I think they have just been lucky.  Even if this one was winds, perhaps it could have been mitigated by not allowing containers to be stacked so high.  And one day, you are going to run into piloting error.

    The advantage of these behemoths, it would seem, is shipping much more cargo with as little labor as possible.  Is it that terrible to provide jobs to mariners?  Jobs that can support families on terra firma?

    Again, all the costs were not factored in.

  109. 109.

    L85NJGT

    My motorcycle safety course instructor recommended not following DIY trailers too closely – many holiday pullers lack a basic grasp of how hitches and safety chains function.

  111. 111.

    Elizabelle

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:   Yeah, I remember your comments at the time of the Conception fire.  Your side turned out to be right.

    And, WRT Key West: was so proud of the locals’ vote there, and am just sick of the Republican state legislature wanting to override them for cash.  All the junk does drive out better local businesses.

    Overtourism is ruining Key West, too.  Cannot speak to the waters, but it’s not as easy to disgorge 3000 plus car passengers in one fell swoop on one very small community.

    I hope the locals prevail in Key West.  Overtourism ruins what made a place special, to begin with.  Barcelona is having trouble with this, too.

  112. 112.

    Fair Economist

    @Elizabelle: The primary benefit to larger ships at this point is greater energy efficiency, not reduced labor costs. With just a few people needed to man these enormous ships, labor costs are comparatively small.

  115. 115.

    Geminid

    @Ken: Actually, the full moon might have helped pull Lyria out. Then her squalling dislodged the container ship.

  118. 118.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I thought about, and wanted, to do a celebrating Jackals post for your new book and your second Big Idea post, but I haven’t done those for any of our BJ authors since then, so it didn’t seem right to get to you twice and there others not at all.

    So we need to encourage our BJ authors and others to share their big moments in the comments – or send me email – so we can celebrate together.

  119. 119.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize: I think some of this has to do which what ads are on the front page at any given time.

    edit:

    Actually, I just realized that I neglected to add the MORE command (that hides stuff below the fold) on the latest I Got the Shot! thread, which has photos of all those stickers.  So that may have been an issue, too.

    If you see this and have time to check, let me know if you still have the same issue with the front page.

  120. 120.

    L85NJGT

    In a world… where there are alternate routes and modalities…

    That canal was closed for eight years. Global commerce kept on moving.

  121. 121.

    J R in WV

    @Elizabelle:

    I hope the locals prevail in Key West. Overtourism ruins what made a place special, to begin with. Barcelona is having trouble with this, too.

    I was posted to Key West by the US Navy after finishing school in 1970, and was joined by Wife in spring of 1971 when she completed her degree at WVU and we wed. It was like a Tropical fairytale back then.

    She got a great job, we lived right on Duval St just a couple of  blocks from the waterfront. After a year and a half, my ship was sent to the yards for a much needed overhaul and that was the end of our Tropical sojourn in the Keys.

    My parents rented an apartment for the winter in Key West a few years later and we spent a couple of weeks with them, it was still pretty nice, esp with family there. Even my grandma went down! One evening we went to the dog track, Mom gave me $20, Grandma gave me $20 (to gamble with was the unspoken bargain) and not being a gambler, I was $40 to the good on the night!     ;~)

    Then just a couple of years ago Wife and I decided to fly down and see what it was like today. OMG — big mistake. First we went in September, it was scorching hot. Was also Bike Week, and the Cruise Lines were dumping thousands of people off every day.

    We did not have a good time. The restaurants were mostly giant cafeteria sized places with fast food menus, fried fish from away, burgers, etc. When we lived there the food was amazingly good, even at the less expensive Cuban places, and all the seafood was local caught.

    Sad! All the little Conch houses were sold, remodeled, and now cost $750,000 for a shotgun 4 room place. Won’t be going back…

  122. 122.

    Ruckus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Having worked in professional sports, every so often I’d see/meet a famous person, either from a different sport, business, or entertainment. Micheal Jordan, William Ford III, etc. It was very interesting to see how people treated them and/or looked up to them. Often they are normal people with high skills in one area and if they don’t let that go to their heads as skills in all areas of humanity they are, like most other, unknown people. On a side note I’ve had to interview sports leaders, when the organization’s magazine couldn’t send someone. Even people I thought were standoffish, when I actually met them and sat and talked to them, were normal. Of course, like all human interactions there are decent people and assholes. Fortunately the decent people out number the assholes.

  123. 123.

    Ruckus

    @Elizabelle:

    They do it because the cost to ship per container is cheaper.

    Full stop.

    When you realize that the amount of stuff made in far off countries from where it’s sold, you see that the big ships make a rather big difference in the cost of some goods. IOW they make it viable to produce halfway around the world and ship things. The quality of goods can go up (doesn’t in any way imply that they do, jus that it is possible) and the price can actually go down. Which of course means that some can get filthy rich while more can become just over paupers, with a basically stagnate at best middle, and an upper segment that sees the filthy rich stage always about an arms length away, all of this leaving control to those least likely to do a good job in operating a country or really anything, because they are selfish bastards. The last 4 yrs is an example.

  125. 125.

    Captain C

    @Ken: ​
      It’s definitely ‘Further’ if the surviving members of the Dead (maybe minus Phil) play a gig on it while it’s grounded a second time.

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