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I’m waiting for Konrad to promote more U S. wind farm vessels for US mariner jobs.

Capt. Ajay Pant is still sitting in a British jail — and it’s time to ask hard questions. On 14 June 2026, M/T Smyrtos was boarded by British forces in the English Channel while carrying ~98,000 MT of Russian Ural crude from Ust-Luga to Port Said. The vessel had effectively become stateless after Cameroon deregistered it, and the UK branded it part of Russia’s “shadow fleet.” Capt. Ajay Pant, an Indian national and the ship’s Master, was charged under Regulation 46Z9B of the UK’s Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 — accused of knowingly supplying/delivering prohibited Russian oil to a third country. Here’s why this case should worry every seafarer, and every nation that depends on them: 1. The Master doesn’t fix cargo or choose the voyage. He receives voyage instructions — load port, discharge port, cargo grade/quantity, bunker port, charterer and agent details. Even the Bill of Lading is signed ashore. Commercial decisions are made by owners and charterers, not the officer standing watch on the bridge. If “the Master must have known” becomes the legal standard, container ship masters could next be jailed for whatever turns out to be inside a box they never opened — the same crude, incidentally, that the UK’s own General Trade Licence GBSAN0004 permits importing as refined diesel/jet fuel from third countries until 1 January 2027. 2. Every crew member has the same internet access as the Master today. If “knowledge of the cargo” is the crime, why was only the Master

Old_school: loyal to the Admin But not to the Constitution, therein lies the rub. We don’t have a king and we don’t need or want sycophants and toadies to do his dirty work.

Are there any US wind farm vessels? I know there is wind there,

Go back and read it again JAK… “four stripes” And don’t try telling us Deputy Maritime Administrator isn’t USMS and that you would not wear your formal dress for important Washington social functions? If you do try telling us you wouldn’t then I’m calling you a liar…you have completely given yourself away on X and that is your biggest headache here from this day forward…you ain’t no merchant mariner at all, but just another “Washington power player” wannabe who is going to end up on the wrong side of history. How about that question if you still have your Pentagon press pass?

Old_school: “Captain” Konrad was wanting to be the MarAd ship building czar which just happens also to be a USMS uniformed position with gold braid, at least 4 stripes, You read all that and somehow concluded I asked for gold braid and the title “Czar”? The Deputy MARAD Administrator wears a suit, genius. The USMS has no four-star admirals. Nobody even calls him “Deputy Commandant” except me and that’s just to give the pentagon guys who follow me on x some reference because they have no idea what a Deputy MARAD Admin is. Is your reading comprehension really that bad, or do y’all have a magic story generator like the sorting hat in Harry Potter? Or maybe you’re D&D fanatics? IDK, I don’t make fake assumptions and post them as truth. That said, go ahead, write more Konrad Konrad Konrad fantasy novels. I’ll read them but stay out of the comments because this is a professional forum not a “everyone has to line up for or against Konrad forum”

To quote: Ok, Trump Administration rant time. Let me explain why shipbuilding is screwed. I have been offered at least a half dozen jobs in this Administration. I did not ask for a single one. I did not lobby for a single one. They came to me & I reluctantly said yes, I will serve my nation. Fingerprints. Background investigations. Interviews with security agents. Legal reviews. Selling my entire stock portfolio, hundreds of man hours. All for jobs I never wanted. And all of it stonewalled by some SES somewhere that cabinet members can’t push through. Technically I’m still “in processing” for one of them, an SGE position, but my “Management Support Officer” stopped answering emails & calls in April. Ghosted. Fine. IDC. But there is one job I have asked for since Trump pulled ahead in the Republican primaries: Deputy Commandant of the US Merchant Marine. It matters to my service & it is the office legally in charge of shipbuilding. All three front runners for the Commandant position promised to fight for me. The problem was that @SecDuffy , like every other cabinet member, refused to fire the previous SES & staff. And nobody hates anyone in DC more than @PeteButtigieg ’s former staff hates me. So DOT staff still loyal to Pete said “hell no,” and Duffy handed the job to a congressional staffer instead. A guy who left the Merchant Marine at O3. “He’s extremely smart, John” “Everyone loves him” “This guy is really going to fight for our nation” “He has a law degree” Fine. Have hi

Old_school: https://x.com/johnkonrad/status/2081356814252167253&ved=2ahUKEwj64L6m1P6WAxWrEzQIHbaEEiQQFnoECCsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0Df658T-0ZrK7MyqX9MyUA No luck. Even pasting the link on X doesn’t work.

It opened for me a second ago so try again but I can post the screenshots I have

page doesn’t exist

Was the last sea term not a good enough work out?

is there anything it this which you wish to retract or at least change or do stand by it now as when you posted it? https://x.com/johnkonrad/status/2081356814252167253&ved=2ahUKEwj64L6m1P6WAxWrEzQIHbaEEiQQFnoECCsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0Df658T-0ZrK7MyqX9MyUA And if you do not wish to at least modify your post then please elaborate how in it you went to Washington with any thought to use everything gCaptain.com has given you to make any attempt to do anything which just maybe would represent the American mariner there? Further, do you remain in the Pentagon press pool?