Paul Jay's Ponderings

1. Get some bait boats. Second hand commercial freighters/tankers should do.
2. Staff them with merchant marine type folks for normal operations.
3. Have the boats declare some juicy cargo on a stopover in a country like Egypt or Morocco, or in any mideastern country if going the other way. Stay in port long enough for word to travel, etc. Do actual trade and commerce, so it blends in with normal shipping.
   
4. Register it under a smaller/newer NATO country. (Or some third world country if you can get them to agree to it.)
   
5. Somewhere on the ship, deploy a security team of SEALs/SAS/etc. Basically any NATO special ops team who could counter an attack without blinking.
6. Equip the security team with 50 cals and light arms sufficient for the job.
7. Somewhere in 50mi radius, have a follow up Navy ship or two. It should have armed Seahawk or Cobra helicopters ready to deploy on call.
8. Sail bait ship close enough to Somali waters.
   
9. Other tactics and procedures for maritime operation "rope-a-dope" TBD...

It should be obvious enough, and a quick way to end the problem. Also I'd suggest to moderate the resistance at first (so it's not overwhelming) such that the pirates call for their backup to take the "prize". That way there's more of their boats coming at the bait when the helicopter gunships arrive. Once the Somali pirates are in the trap, the special ops team can deploy from the freighter at full proficiency.

A smart admiral should get on this and bring it before Pentagon staffers and NATO consul so this problem can be nipped in the bud. The U.S. Navy looks kind of silly if it's patrolling the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf, yet allowing this kind of pirating shit to happen nearby.

Labels: africa, commercial shipping, pirates, problem

Ok, you want billions to keep afloat because nobody is buying during the economic crunch right now, here's what I'd require in return:

• Make a car that's diesel or gasoline based flex fuel. (You already have that technology outside the U.S., so put it in there. No more excuses.)
• Make it a midsize or large compact sedan. (No problems doing this, that should be your bread & butter car anyways.) And no, it should not be delegated to a luxury or performance brand. It should be reasonably priced if people are to buy it.
  
• Make it a plug-in hybrid. You're pushing towards this anyways, fast track it into production now. The sooner the better.
  
• Make it out of composites, this is going to be the biggy and the real leapfrog technology. I'm not talking about body panels (been done before), I'm saying the whole space frame should be made of composites. That would shave of at least 800lbs. and do the most to boost economy numbers outside of the hybrid capability. Not that you'd have to throw out your neat and expensive hydro-formed metal stamping stuff, a few parts might still require that. But that you should figure out how to make a large scale standard production car (and not just a few hand-made exotics) out of lightweight composites such as carbon fiber. If companies like Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, or Northrop can figure out how to do large things like aircraft sections out of such materials, then why the hell not have Detroits big 3 make some cars out of it? Besides, it would make us an automotive technology leader again instead of some trend follower. So shaving at least 800lbs from previous models using materials technology and the retooling for that be the biggest requirement for the billions of dollars bailout.

Does that make sense?

And if you can't do that, perhaps we should have you build city busses or other municipal type vehicle at a very large discount. That would get you making something in return for the taxpayer money instead of just getting a handout. Not to mention it would also help U.S. cities that are having money problems with such things too.