REBUILD THE UNITED STATES!
NEXT GENERATION DESALINATION: Q & A WITH OCEANWELL CEO ROBERT BERGSTROM
PHOTO: OCEANWELL BY STAS MARGARONIS The Los Angeles Times recently reported on a start-up company, OceanWell which plans to test a new desalination technology in deep water off the coast of Malibu, California in the latter part of 2026 after a successful trial in a...
NEXT GENERATION DESALINATION: Q & A WITH OCEANWELL CEO ROBERT BERGSTROM
PHOTO: OCEANWELL BY STAS MARGARONIS The Los Angeles Times recently reported on a start-up company, OceanWell which plans to test a new desalination technology in deep water off the coast of Malibu, California in the latter part of 2026 after a successful trial in a California reservoir. The company says its deep-sea system, if proved viable, would transform salt water into pure drinking water at...
Articles
HOW THE PROPELLER CLUB SUPPORTS THE BULGARIAN PORT OF VARNA
By Stas Margaronis In 2018, Atanas Atanasov returned to his native Bulgaria from the United States, where he had worked for the National Cargo Bureau for more than a decade. He came back to work at the Port of Varna for Cargill, at their Ocean Transportation division. CARGILL Cargill, Incorporated, is a multinational food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, founded in 1865. With...
AS CHINA’S SHIPBUILDING LEAD GROWS THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO RESPOND
BY STAS MARGARONIS & KEVIN POLICARPO China’s growing naval superiority over the United States is the result of a concerted Chinese commercial and naval shipbuilding effort that the United States and the U.S. Navy chose to ignore while letting its commercial and naval shipbuilding capabilities and shipyards decline or disappear. SOUTH KOREAN INVESTMENTS One bright spot is the efforts by the...
THREE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PORTS REPORT PROGRESS IN 2025
BY STAS MARGARONIS, Three Northern California ports - Redwood City, Richmond and San Francisco - reported that they are making headway in 2025 despite a more challenging trade and cargo picture. The Port of Redwood City has improved revenues despite a decline in tonnage, San Francisco has reported a resurgence in cruise ship volumes following downturns during the Pandemic and the Port of...
A SHIPBUILDING STRATEGY FOR THE UNITED STATES: SOLUTIONS
Kaiser Richmond (CA) Shipyard During World War II BY STAS MARGARONIS IN THIS REPORT: WILL SOUTH KOREA MAKE AMERICAN SHIPBUILDING GREAT AGAIN (MASGA)? GCAPTAIN REPORTS BAD NEWS ON SHIPBUILDING ROLE MODEL: SOUTH KOREA’S HYUNDAI SAMHO SHIPS ACT WORLD WAR II SHIPBUILDING MOBILZATION THE LIBERTY SHIP SHIPS FOR VICTORY KAISER AND BECHTEL SPEARHEAD SHIPBUILDING MASS-PRODUCTION U.S. CEDES ITS...
A SHIPBUILDING STRATEGY FOR THE UNITED STATES: CHALLENGES
National Steel & Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) San Diego, CA displays an older and smaller shipyard lay-out than a new Chinese shipyard featured below (PHOTO: NASSCO) “Commercial ships could carry merchant trade, but they could also carry logistical supplies for the military in wartime. Shipyards could build new ships for civilian fleets as well as the Navy, but they could also repair...
NOAA & Climate Change Denial Start To Take Their Toll
By Kevin Policarpo Cuts to NOAA’s personnel and operations by the Trump Administration have made the agency’s mission much more challenging as evidenced by charges that recent NOAA cutbacks may have delayed flood warnings in Central Texas. This, in turn, may have prompted a Congressional backlash so as to retore NOAA funding. Congressional members from both sides of the aisle have worked...
U.S. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL CRISIS: UNDERSTAFFING & UNDERFUNDING
By Kevin Policarpo With the number of high-profile airplane crashes in the U.S. since January 2025, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now under extreme pressure to rebuild the nation’s outdated air traffic control system. The FAA has estimated that the cost of upgrading the system will cost the federal government $35 billion through 2030.[1] On January 29th, over the Potomac River...
CUTBACKS IN U.S. INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING COULD COST U.S. $5 TRILLION: ASCE
PHOTO: PORT OF LONG BEACH BY STAS MARGARONIS Infrastructure investments during the Biden administration closed the shortfall in U.S. infrastructure investments, including roads, bridges, ports, inland waterways, and aviation, but if Congress reverses that investment trend, the result could be “$5 trillion lost in gross economic output over 20 years”, according to the American Society of Civil...
TRUMP TRADE & DEFENSE POLICIES UNDERMINE U.S. ASIAN & EUROPEAN ALLIES HELPING CHINA AND RUSSIA
China's Belt & Road Initiatives & International Trade Source: https://leidenasiacentre.nl/english-new-map-of-the-belt-and-road-initiative/# BY STAS MARGARONIS U.S. President Donald Trump's massive “Liberation Day” tariffs announced on April 2nd are likely to have a negative effect on U.S. trade and along with his reconsideration of long-term military alliances are likely to benefit China...
U.S. NAVAL SHIPBUILDING IN “PERPETUAL STATE OF TRIAGE” SAYS GAO
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152051811 BY KEVIN POLICARPO The U.S. Navy and its shipbuilders: “are effectively made to operate in a perpetual state of triage. As a result, the Navy must divert its attention to shipbuilding programs that fall behind schedule and grow in cost,” according to a March General Accounting Office (GAO) report.[1] A second GAO report published...