[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The Mexican Navy ship that crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge likely suffered a 'mechanical issue' before losing power, according to police.
The massive 160-foot-high Cuauhtémoc Training Ship, carrying a crew of 277, smashed into the iconic New York City bridge around 9pm Saturday.
Two unidentified crew members were killed after falling from the masts to the ship's deck.
A total of 22 crew members have been reported injured as of Sunday morning, with at least 11 in critical condition, Mexican Navy officials said.
After the tragic incident, Chief Wilson Aramboles with the NYPD Special Operations Bureau said 'some mechanical issues' most likely caused the ship to hit the bridge.
'The captain that was maneuvering the ship lost, I guess, power of the ship,' Aramboles told reporters, while advising that the information was preliminary.
A graphic posted to X appeared to show the massive ship losing power and stalling in the water just before reaching the bridge.
The records show the ship undocking at Seaport in Lower Manhattan around 8.20pm alongside alongside a tugboat. It was then seen rapidly losing control as it started to move backward toward the Brooklyn Brooklyn bridge.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Mikhail Kucherov
[REGNUM] Donald Trump has once again stated that the honor of victory in World War II belongs exclusively to the United States. This includes the implication that without American Lend-Lease supplies, the USSR and its allies would not have defeated Hitler. But was this aid a decisive or significant factor in the defeat of Nazism?
"In Russia they celebrated (the 80th anniversary of the Victory), in France they celebrated, except for us. We didn't celebrate. But we won this war," the US President said. The same thesis in a more moderate version (which was voiced , among others, by the same Trump) sounds like this: before the opening of the second front in Europe, the Americans helped Britain, and then the Soviet Union, with Lend-Lease equipment, shells and food. And that means that this help predetermined the victory.
A quote attributed to Joseph Stalin has been circulating on social networks and even in press publications : “Without these (American) machines, we would not have won the war.” In fact, this is a distorted fragment of the book “Through His Eyes” – a blitz memoir by Franklin Roosevelt’s son, Elliot, who accompanied his father to international conferences.
According to Roosevelt Jr., "on the sidelines" of Tehran in 1943, Stalin said in the presence of Roosevelt and Winston Churchill : "The main thing in this war is machines. The United States has proven that it can produce 8,000 to 10,000 planes a month. Therefore, the United States is a country of machines. These machines, received under Lend-Lease, are helping us win the war."
Roosevelt responded by "praising the mighty Red Army, which is using this technique and, while we are here dining, is stubbornly pushing back the Nazi hordes."
There is nothing similar to this dialogue in Soviet sources from the 1940s and 1950s. But note that the book "Through His Eyes" was translated and published in Moscow in 1947. This means that there was no objection to this interpretation of Lend-Lease in the USSR.
Today, the debate about the criticality of Lend-Lease deliveries continues unabated, and is exacerbated by Trump's boasts. But to appreciate the significance of American aid, we must understand how it was organized.
WHAT IS LEND-LEASE
The term "lend-lease" itselfThis is a tracing of two English words: to lend — to lend and to lease — to rent out, to lease. Hence the modern business term "leasing".
In part, Lend-Lease was similar to this type of long-term lease, when a leasing company buys, say, a truck from a car dealership, and hands the car over to a grocery store owner for a certain period of time. The owner uses the truck, makes payments to the "lessor," and at the end of the contract either buys the car or refuses it.
Only in this case, the role of the car dealer was played by the American military-industrial complex and other big US businesses, the role of the leasing company was played by the Roosevelt administration, and the role of the clients was played by the British Empire, the Republic of China , the Soviet Union, and then Australia, New Zealand, and Charles de Gaulle's "Fighting France".
Another catchy metaphor for Lend-Lease was coined by Roosevelt himself. If your neighbor's house is on fire and you have a garden hose, you lend it to your neighbor before your own house catches on fire. Once the fire is out, your neighbor will either return the hose or, if it breaks, pay for it.
The legal basis for Lend-Lease was the " Defense of the United States Act " passed by Congress on March 11, 1941 (that is, almost 9 months before the United States entered World War II). It allowed the president to transfer military and civilian equipment, ammunition, food, medicine and medical equipment, petroleum products and other raw materials to any country whose defense was "vital" to the national security of the United States.
The law prescribed the Lend-Lease scheme. The US provides a long-term loan to an ally country (usually an interest-free loan). Then the "fire hose" is transferred: equipment, machinery, etc. Purchases are made at the expense of the US Treasury.
After the end of military operations, the property delivered under Lend-Lease, which was not lost and remained suitable for civilian purposes, is paid for in full or in part from the provided credit. Or it is returned in kind. And then the ally returns the loan itself.
HOW THE SCHEME WORKED AND HOW THE USSR WAS CONNECTED TO IT
The United States had been transferring goods to Britain and China to defend against the Germans and Japanese since 1940, even before the Lend-Lease program began. But these were cash-and-carry deliveries. Each of the Roosevelt administration's deals had to be manually carried through Congress, overcoming the resistance of isolationists who called for maximum distancing from a new world war in Europe, East Asia, and the Pacific.
When Roosevelt ran for a third term in 1940, he promised: "Our boys will not be sent to fight any foreign wars." But at the same time, the US president was determined to support Britain. Especially since Churchill pleaded: "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job." But in November 1940, London notified its ambassador : "Britain is broke" financially, and only supplies on credit can save it.
Roosevelt handed over the Lend-Lease Declaration to Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek in December 1940, but it was only in March that the corresponding law was pushed through Congress.
On March 27, 1941, Congress approved $7 billion (152 billion today's dollars) for the Lend-Lease program.
At the end of October 1941, at the most difficult moment of the Battle of Moscow, the program was extended to the USSR. Our country was granted an interest-free loan of 1 billion dollars (21.7 billion in today's equivalent). It is curious that the program was launched on November 7, 1941, the day of the historic parade on Red Square.
Historians ask: why was the Soviet Union not included in the Lend-Lease program immediately after June 22? The most plausible answer is political. One of the obstacles is considered to be the inclusion of the Baltic republics in the USSR in 1940, which the USA did not recognize.
However, the Roosevelt administration had been secretly negotiating with Moscow since the summer of 1941. Roosevelt's special envoy Harry Hopkins, who spoke with Stalin, wrote that the Soviet leader had already been working out the logistics of future shipments in July:
"He told me... that it was difficult to enter Arkhangelsk, but still possible. He was sure that his icebreakers could keep the port free all winter. Vladivostok was dangerous, he said, because it could be cut off by Japan at any time, and the railways and roads in Persia were inadequate. Nevertheless, all these routes had to be used."
After the USSR was included in the Lend-Lease program, Washington was informed that Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek were unhappy that the US had divided the supply flow not between two, but between three, including Stalin.
But for some time all clients were left without what was promised.
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States entered the war. Due to the urgent rearmament of the army, supplies abroad slowed down (for their resumption, Roosevelt's order was needed not to break the commitments). But soon the American military-industrial complex, the auto industry, and "big chemistry" began to work with renewed vigor. And their owners could be pleased with the fact that the goods were going not only to the US army, but also to the allies.
As a result of World War II, Britain received $31.4 billion (683 billion in 2025 prices) in Lend-Lease aid, the Soviet Union received $11.3 (245) billion, France received $3.2 (about 70) billion, and China received $1.6 (less than 35) billion.
FOUR WAYS
Lend-lease in the USSR went along four routes: the Pacific, the Arctic, through Iran, which had been occupied by Soviet and British troops since August 1941, and through the Black Sea. The first three routes accounted for more than 90% of deliveries.
The shortest, but most dangerous, was the Arctic route – across the North Atlantic and further into the Soviet Arctic.
Here the convoys were under constant threat from the German Air Force and Navy based in Norway. The most famous loss was the American-British-Soviet convoy PQ-17 (June–July 1942), of which 22 of 35 ships were sunk. The blame for the incident is placed on First Lord of the Admiralty Dudley Pound , who ordered "Convoy scatter!" leaving the transport ships unescorted.
The Iranian route was the longest and safest. The journey from the US to Iranian ports alone took 75 days. There were frequent cases when ships waited in Iranian ports for unloading for more than 30 days, and equipment arrived in Soviet Transcaucasia with sand in its engines. Unlike the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Persian Corridor was almost unhindered, with the exception of raids by local bandits, for defense against whom the crews were issued Thompson submachine guns.
The most spectacular delivery method was the “Alsib” – the “Alaska-Siberia” air route, along which American planes were ferried from the city of Nome, Alaska, to Krasnoyarsk.
IT LOOKED SMOOTH ON PAPER
Of the 15.7 million tons of cargo that arrived in the USSR during the entire war, 11 million tons, or 70.7% of deliveries, fell in 1943–1945. Before that, things had been going neither here nor there, not only because of force majeure in the form of the threat of Luftwaffe raids and German submarines, but also because of the fault of the suppliers themselves.
In early 1942, the head of the Soviet military mission to the United States, Alexander Repin, visited the White House and handed Roosevelt a list of complaints. In addition to the long shipping times, Moscow complained about the poor quality of equipment and the carelessness of personnel:
"The crews of the transport ships are assembled indiscriminately and several days before departure... The amount of ammunition sent along with the weapons is so insignificant that soon most of the tanks and aircraft will be inoperative... There is an acute shortage of spare parts for US-made aircraft, and 30% of the machines delivered are inoperative."
For his work in securing supplies, Repin was awarded the American rank of Commander of the Legion of Honor. At the close of the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt presented this award to Stalin.
"COBRA" WITH A TELEPHONE AND "MASS GRAVE - 7"
Opinions about the quality of military equipment arriving in the USSR varied.
For example, the American fighter P-39 "Airacobra", of which 4500 units were delivered to the USSR, had a good radio that worked as a "city telephone" and great firepower: the ability to simultaneously shoot bullets and shells, from which the German "Junkers" literally fell apart. Soviet ace Alexander Pokryshkin flew such a machine, who came up with the idea of using this "mixed" combination in combat.
Despite a serious drawback - the engine was located at the rear, which made it easy for the aircraft to go into a flat spin - in the hands of a professional pilot it turned into a formidable weapon. True, the Airacobras were supplied to the Soviet Union due to the lack of demand in other theaters of military operations, where air battles took place at high altitudes: this model operated at medium and low altitudes.
Reviews of the tanks were less flattering. The M3 "Li" looked like a prototype of a fantasy robot: it was three meters high, had two guns and a crew of seven. Despite a good acceleration of up to 40 kilometers per hour, to fire the main gun, it was necessary to turn the tank itself: our tankers nicknamed it BM-7 "a mass grave for seven."
The Allied tanks, beautifully lined with leather and equipped with radios, were not winter-ready. The Valentine's tracks did not grip the ground well enough: if one roller was damaged, the armored vehicle was immobilized. Some American vehicles, including the Shermans, even lay on their bellies in the snow.
Many Soviet tank crews were afraid to receive Western tanks, preferring their native T-34. Churchill also highly praised the characteristics of this legendary machine:
"There were three great weapons in World War II: the English linear gun, the German Messerschmitt aircraft and the Soviet T-34 tank. However, if in the first two cases I know who did it and how, then I absolutely do not understand how such a miracle tank appeared!"
ROOSEVELT EGGS AND AGED BREAD
Strictly speaking, we should be talking about the allied Lend-Lease, not the American one. In addition to the USA, the USSR's suppliers were Great Britain and its dominion Canada. But the United States accounted for 94% of the total volume of deliveries.
More importantly, how did the allied aid compare with what the Soviet Union itself produced in the factories and plants evacuated deep into the country?
From 1941 to 1945, the USSR received 5,218 tanks from Great Britain and 7,500 from the United States. In total, 110,000 tanks were produced in our country at that time. That is, the share of allied vehicles did not exceed 12%, which does not allow us to talk about their decisive role in defeating the Nazis on the Eastern Front.
The ratio for aircraft was approximately the same: those supplied by the Allies accounted for 15.5% of those manufactured in the Soviet Union.
One of the symbols of the American Lend-Lease was the "commander's Willys" - the Willys MB army vehicle with increased cross-country ability. In total, in 1941-45, our country received 400 thousand passenger cars and trucks. This is significant, but the share of Western vehicles in the Red Army's "automobile fleet" did not exceed 32.8%, the rest was provided by our auto industry.
Under Lend-Lease, the USSR received about 1,900 steam locomotives. The aid was very timely, because due to enemy bombing and shelling, the number of locomotives, so necessary for the front and rear, decreased from 27.9 thousand in 1941 to 23 thousand in 1943. On the other hand, Lend-Lease steam locomotives made up less than 8% of the total number running on our railways.
Much less noticeable was the weapons aid. Guns of various calibers sent to the Soviet Union made up 1.26% of the total, and for machine guns this figure was even lower - only 0.1%.
At the same time, historians call toluene, from which trinitrotoluene (TNT) was prepared: an explosive material for shells and mines, a truly important component for the fight against the invaders. The USSR lacked oil, the main raw material for the production of this component.
Thank you for the help with food, especially considering that in 1941 the Nazis captured territories where up to 40% of the grain in the USSR was grown. In 1941-45, about 5 million tons of food were transported under Lend-Lease. True, more than half of these deliveries - 2.76 million tons - did not occur during the most difficult period of the beginning of the war, but in 1942-44.
The symbols of American aid were "Roosevelt eggs" - American egg powder and canned stew. In addition, the Soviet soldiers were provided with frozen allied beef and pork, canned goods, sausages and bacon, butter and vegetable oil, and cheese. Infantryman Vasily Lobachev also recalled more exotic products:
"Once we received, through Lend-Lease, bread baked in 1936 in special packages. And imagine, it was delicious! It was also given in dry rations."
WE HELP BY MAKING A PROFIT
The Lend-Lease program was essentially curtailed in May 1945 after Germany's capitulation and was completely terminated in September when Japan surrendered.
As has already been said above, Lend-Lease is not charity. In 1947, the Harry Truman administration presented the USSR with a bill for 2.7 (35.5 in today's prices) billion dollars for the undamaged Lend-Lease property that remained at our disposal by 1945. Moscow considered the assessment to be too high, and negotiations that dragged on until 1949 led to nothing.
The fact that the United States has reduced the amount of debt several times (and this is taking into account the inflation of the dollar!) indicates that they do not have a clear methodology for calculating it.
Or that they despaired of collecting the original and even revised amounts, and so presented numbers they hoped they might actually get.
In 1972, the administration of "Tricky Dick" Richard Nixon , against the backdrop of détente, agreed with Moscow that we would pay $722 million in installments (until 2001), but with interest. A year later, the USSR made the first payment of $48 million, and then the Americans themselves ruined everything. In 1974, Congress passed the Jackson-Vanik sanctions amendment, which not only complicated trade between the USSR and the USA, but also the credit relations between the two countries.
The negotiations were put on hold until 1990, and a year later, when the USSR collapsed, Russia, as the legal successor, took on the Lend-Lease debts.
The country, which paid in blood for the freedom of the planet from Nazism, paid off its debts only in 2006, although it received almost three times less cargo from Washington during the war than London.
On the other hand, American business clearly did not lose out during the years of World War II, both from military orders and from Lend-Lease exports.
Wages in the country increased by 44%. General Motors, which produced tanks, aircraft engines and the famous Studebaker trucks, increased its sales from $1.1 billion to $3.1 billion from 1938 to 1945. Douglas Aircraft achieved even more impressive figures, increasing its sales from $28 billion to $987 billion in 1941-1945.
To sum up, we can formulate a remote response to Trump: Russia is grateful to the United States for the timely deal concluded in 1941, which helped our country shoulder the main burden of fighting the common enemy. The importance of Lend-Lease supplies should not be underestimated. But they should be treated objectively: as a project that helped some to establish industry and earn money, and others to bring the long-awaited Victory closer.
#1
The man has the receipts. Partial note - while Soviet industry was shipping east during 1941, the critical steel for tanks and armored vehicles was coming from the US. Much more in the tome.
#2
We should have let the Russians get crushed.
Allying with communists was a HUGE mistake.
We created a monster, barely won the Cold War and today are dealing with a threat to Ukraine and all Europe from Poland to Paris.
We could have disposed of them long ago.
Don't forget Critical Theory and Cultural Marxism came from Russia.
And those books that the Germans burned? Turns out they were full of transgenderism and other horrid curses.
Via Bolshevik Soviet Jews.
Russia /= Soviets
Soviets were defeated, the CCCP crumbled, the Wall fell, Warsaw broke up - the Cold War was Won. The only people unclear of this are Millennials who have listened to their Boomer Grand Pa's tell too many stories. Papa's who prepared their whole life for a war with Soviets that never materialized and they are not letting it go their anthem that the Soviets Must Be Defeated.
In my timeline and life, I've met more American Marxists than Russian Commies - personally havent really seen a soviet since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
Orthodox Christians & Roman Catholics should be natural allies. WWJD? And in our battle against the Woke Eco Globalists, Russia again would make a natural ally.
#2
They’ll just move on. Joe had a lot of problems. They had to cheat in multiple states to get him across the finish line. The real question is what kind or terrible candidates ran against him in the 2020 Dem primary. The Dems scammed the system
to install Joe over the top of a large field. He was dealing with a number of disqualifying medical issues at the time. We have seen why Kamala would have been terrible, but the others must have been bad as well.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/19/2025 16:43 Comments ||
Top||
[BBC] Among the cactuses in the desert of Arizona, just outside Phoenix, an extraordinary collection of buildings is emerging that will shape the future of the global economy and the world.
The hum of further construction is creating not just a factory for the world's most advanced semiconductors. Eventually, it will mass produce the most advanced chips in the world. This work is being done in the US for the first time, with the Taiwanese company behind it pledging to spend billions more here in a move aimed at heading off the threat of tariffs on imported chips.
It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you may not have heard of: TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors. Until now they were all made on the island of Taiwan, which is 100 miles east of the Chinese mainland. The Apple chip in your iPhone, the Nvidia chips powering your ChatGPT queries, the chips in your laptop or computer network, all are made by TSMC.
Its Arizona facility "Fab 21" is closely guarded. Blank paper or personal devices are not allowed in case designs are leaked. It houses some of the most important intellectual property in the world, and the process to make these chips is one of the most complicated and intensive in global manufacturing.
Trump wants TSMC Arizona to become a foundation stone for his American golden age. But the company's story to date is perhaps the ultimate expression of the success of modern globalization.
#2
TSMC was originally to be built here to protect the intellectual property and physical asset against the increasingly likely invasion of Taiwan by Communist China. The financial advantages of manufacturing in America under the new Trump rules only came years later.
But one does understand why the BBC might not want to notice that all sorts of people and businesses see America as the ultimate haven. The tale is America, however imperfect, benefitting because she’s a light in the darkness.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
