The Strait of Hormuz, 17 August 2026
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has effectively ground to a halt as a fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire expires and recent tanker attacks deter operators. Daily transits have plummeted to just 3 to 4 commercial crossings—down roughly 90% from pre-crisis levels—leaving a massive backlog of thousands of idling vessels waiting offshore.
Current Traffic Status
- Daily Transits: Only 3 to 4 verified ship crossings occurred over the last 24 hours, compared to pre-conflict averages of 60 to 135 daily.
- Vessel Backlog: Approximately 3,200 ships—including roughly 800 oil tankers and cargo carriers—remain backed up and idling west of the waterway.
- Oil Shipments: Commercial crude oil and major petroleum product shipments are virtually non-existent as operators adopt a strict wait-and-see stance.
If it’s August, it Must be . . . Halloween??
In the olden days, when we were Cold Warriors, guarding European borders from the evils of the Soviet Union, smart military wives started Christmas shopping in August. We knew we were up against deadlines; any gifts going surface mail needed to be mailed by mid-November. “Last minute” would need to be sent by Thanksgiving, or, horrors, the first week in December, but that is cutting it very close if you want your gifts to actually arrive in time.
You get so you start your shopping in January. We didn’t earn buckets of money, and we could do well by dollar-cost-averaging over the ten months leading up to Christmas. The bases all encouraged us to plan ahead, put things on layaway, make wise decisions – all year round. Knowing the barriers, the custom is to help the service people deal with the challenges of a life of – you know – service.
Finding Halloween had come to our Base commissary the second week in August, just as school is starting, was new to me. We are in the United States! We shouldn’t need to be thinking two months ahead for Halloween!
Pensacola is a Navy-centric community. We have Navy bases here, a solid community of Navy families and Navy retirees, and of course, the beloved Blue Angels. So I am wondering, too – where is the outrage? Where is the pushback when the leader of our nation tells the sailors and their families that they haven’t been in the Straits of Hormuz long enough? Where is the outrage when he dismisses complaints about food shortages, supply shortages, and mental health problems from being at sea for such a long time with no respite?
There are traditions against complaining, so if the grumblings are being heard, there is a real problem. Our military is used to self-sacrifice. It’s the nature of the service. If they are complaining, we can’t tell our military people to just suck it up. We have to listen.
This war has been going on for months, with countless declarations that the war is over and the Strait of Hormuz is open, only to discover, again and again, that it is not true. Over and over, it is another big fat lie.
Wrap it up, guys.
Stunning Cruelty
We’ve already seen the results of putting poorly disciplined, poorly self-restrained, poorly trained, poorly vetted young men in a pseudo-police position to work with immigration. Homeland Security used to be filled with normal bureaucratic professionals, people with a mission to control immigration who had the skills and maturity to do their jobs without resorting to violence when faced with a challenging situation. We call that professionalism.
You put excitable, poorly trained young men in a position of control, and it brings out their worst instincts. It becomes a We vs. Them situation. There is no insight, no compassion, no priority on de-escalation.
So what could possibly go wrong if you issue this volatile work force the new stun gloves to deal with their mission? These gloves inflict pain, and can be very dangerous to children, the elderly, pregnant women and other vulnerable populations. Do we trust these excitable agents will have the presence of mind to remove their gloves when faced with children, the elderly, pregnant women, etc.?
This is how the glove gets its name and a compilation of what they do and how things could go very wrong:
The device’s name stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter. Manufactured by the Kentucky-based company Compliant Technologies, it operates as a “Conductive Distraction and De-escalation Device” (this is the AI generated description on Google)
What is the G.L.O.V.E.?
The device’s name stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter. Manufactured by the Kentucky-based company Compliant Technologies, it operates as a “Conductive Distraction and De-escalation Device”. [1, 2, 3]
- Mechanism: Activated by a small button on the wrist, the gloves deliver an electric shock when they make direct contact with bare skin. They are ineffective through heavy clothing or hair. [1, 2]
- Comparison to Tasers: Unlike a conventional Taser, the gloves do not fire prongs to break the skin or cause full neuromuscular incapacitation. Instead, they inflict localized, intense pain that subsides as soon as the glove is removed. [1, 2]
- Voltage: The G.L.O.V.E. generates roughly 324 to 362 volts, compared to a Taser which can reach up to 50,000 open-circuit volts. [1]
The Defense and Push for Deployment
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) submitted paperwork for a no-bid contract to purchase thousands of these devices. White House border czar Tom Homan defended the plan, stating that the gloves provide a non-lethal alternative—similar to pepper spray or Tasers—to end confrontations safely without escalating to deadly force. [1, 2, 3, 4]
According to an agency contracting notice, DHS may begin distributing the gloves to field officers as early as March 2027, following the development of training and use policies. [1]
Criticism and Backlash
The plan has drawn immediate outrage from civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Immigration Law Center. [1]
- Lack of Accountability: Critics point out that because the shock can be delivered imperceptibly with a simple touch, the tool is highly vulnerable to undocumented abuse and hidden use of force. [1]
- Safety Concerns: Though marketed as non-lethal, 404 Media uncovered a manufacturer’s user manual noting that the gloves could potentially contribute to “sudden death” under certain conditions. The guidelines explicitly warn against using the device on high-risk populations, including pregnant women, children, the elderly, or disabled individuals. [1, 2]
This is a weapon created to deal with a situation CREATED by this administration. We are a nation of immigrants. You don’t need shock gloves to deal with us.
Mr. Homan, give your agents professional training. Teach them self-control, help them not to panic when they face demonstrators. Give them de-escalation techniques. Help your ICE agents deal compassionately with the population, and give them tools for self-restraint and crowd control. Stun gloves and guns are overkill, cruel, and often fatal. Do you want your agents to deal with the lifelong regrets of their impulsive behaviors?
Everyday Heroes Teach Our Children
I live in a state with one of the worst education systems in the country. I live in a county in that state that has one of the highest proportions of children under the poverty line in our schools. I work in one of the poorest schools in the county as a volunteer. With great pride, I say, “I am a laminator.”
With great laughter, my grandchildren call out, “See you later, laminator!”
I LOVE laminating. I get to operate this hot shot machine, and I get to see materials our teachers are using to teach our children. With my graduate degrees, I still have a lot to learn. Last year, laminating, I learned the properties of minerals. Yesterday, I was reminded of the critical components of fiction.
I love the school, which this past year earned an award for its test score improvements. I love the children, so fresh, so adorable, so full of energy. The librarian sings “Bye Bye Butterfly” waving her arms, and all the eager kindergarteners sing loudly and wave their arms, too. “See you soon, big baboon” makes them laugh their heads off. They are fully engaged. They are learning what a baboon looks like. With any luck at all, this year they will get a field trip to the nearby zoo.
Most of all, I love these brave heroes who work in our schools. Our state has policies which seem anti-public education. The state supports vouchers for private schools that show no accountability, and the state is proposing we lower or eliminate property taxes, further indenturing our local governments to the poohbahs in control of our state house of representatives, the state senate, and the state governor. The state has placed on the ballot a proposition to make the school superintendent of schools an elected office, not an office selected by the Board of Education, not going through any vetting process, but making the Superintendent of Education a popularity contest.
In a county known for banning more books in the schools than any other county in the United States, we NEED professionals at the highest levels.
By the grace of God, we already have them in the classrooms at the school where I volunteer. Our teachers are educated, trained, and mentor one another. They are busy at the beginning of the year laying out strict boundaries to keep the education process flowing productively. They are gathering our youngsters, corralling them, teaching them civil behavior, and best practices to achieve the standards which will propel them upwards through the system.
These teachers and administrators are planners, and their good planning gives daily examples to the students of how to succeed – in school, and in life. They live their truth. They demonstrate self-restraint, humility, humor, and toughness. They give their students the tools to succeed. They give them the basics; the ABC’s, the maths, and they polish the rough edges and develop their social skills.
With little thanks, they get up early to be at school to greet the students with a smile, even joy, so early in the morning.
These are my heroes. Their reward is touching and changing lives.
These heroes are in every school in our county, educating our citizens of tomorrow.
Pray for them, my friends, that their burden be light and that the Spirit refreshes them as they face their daily teaching responsibilities and challenges. They do the Lord’s work, welcoming the stranger, teaching the children to be kind to one another, helping them treat one another with respect and civility, how to take turns, how to make room for differences, and the fundamentals of democratic society. God bless the work of their hands!
Finally, A Quiet Moment
We’ve had a rough couple of weeks, starting with an emergency visit to a local vet clinic on a Sunday, then two weeks of constantly surveilling our sick cat. In the greater scheme of things, it’s not such a big deal, we say “it’s a first world problem,” but it creates a whirlwind of extra activity and extra work. We have three cats, and now, three separate places for them. We have our normal activities, and daily requirements. It all adds up.
Two of the cats, including the sick cat, are used to hanging out together, so they don’t understand why they have to be separated. Most of the time, things have been OK. Except at night. No sooner are we all settled, maybe even drifting into sleep, when one or another will start yowling, and scratching at a door, and you’d think it can only go on so long, but no, it keeps going on until we re-arrange things, and it’s good for thirty five minutes or mabe even an hour and then it all starts again.
So we’ve not been getting much sleep, and all this is exacerbated by the worries we have that our sick cat is not getting better. Today is a good day, but we are still worried not everything has resolved, and we have not gotten to the root of the problem.
But today IS a good day. One cat is at my feet, the sick cat, snuggled up and relaxed, which is a really good sign. The other cat, the one that joined our family at the same time as the sick cat is just feet away, on a stand looking out across the Bayou. Or, more likely, he is watching a lizard. He is crazy for lizards.
Most of the time, AdventureMan and I are pretty chipper. This cat illness, and the amount of time it is taking to resolve, and the amount of work involved in keeping cats all separated, and three litter boxes, and cleaning and all the laundry, and lugging the sick cat to the vet for x-rays and treatments, begins to wear on us. We aren’t so patient, with ourselves, with each other. We are tired. We take turns grabbing naps during the day, during cat quiet times, like right after feeding.
I barely know what is going on in the world, except that the Strait of Hormuz is not open, and our allies continue to grow in mistrust of our leadership and our lack of serious purpose. I’m too tired to get roused up as I believe the same insanity is likely to be reigning tomorrow.
I’m just thankful for these minutes of peace, that the sick cat is relaxed and sometimes you have to take what IS and say that this very minute is good enough.
The Weather Guesser and Pensacola’s August Cold Spell
Today’s weather has been unpredictable, to say the least. I almost didn’t go to church; the thunder was rolling in waves, with sharp, loud, frequent bolts of lightning hitting, mostly in the Bayou, but close enough to make my eyes go wonky. The rain came down in sheets, with tropical winds blowing limbs and leaves around, and then, just when I needed to head out for church, it all stopped.
Church attendence was low, not surprisingly, with the heat, humidity, blowing rain and lightning, but the rain held off until after the service. I got home, and it started all over again. It’s been that kind of a day, a nice day to stay inside with a good book. (Ann Cleeve’s Heron’s Cry). Now, it’s clearing up a little and you can see, the temperature has outstripped the forecast for today.
This is what they tell us it is going to look like for the rest of the week:
We do not use any of this for planning purposes. A good friend tells me about a radio station that will state, “we guarantee this forecast for the next twenty minutes.” AdventureMan refers to the meteorologists as “the weather guessers.” We dress for heat and keep umbrellas in the car, year-round, to cope with unexpected squalls.
Just Kidding!
The hot steamy Fridays of summer are always a good time to watch for the news that the Administration does not want you to know.
This week, it is the admission made by the Trump DOJ that the damage to the Refection Pool was organic, related to the poor application of the reflecting pool lining, due to the rushed contract and and the no-bid contract to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago pool guy.
The waste, the sheer waste of this President, sickens me. Embellishments, fix-ups, gilded fixtures and statues are a WASTE. Washington DC was designed with a restrained style, a colonial style, not a mix of Saudi-gaudy and Western house of ill repute. And in truth, this administration has corrupted every corner of our devastated government and its bureaucracy, has created a national confederacy of ill-repute.
And all that fraud, waste and abuse is just wires and mirrors to distract us from this inadequate man’s maneuvering to be sure he stays in political power.
It’s tempting to look away from this endless, outrageous news cycle, so full of bad surprises. And it is beneficial for your mental health to relax, breathe, and think happy thoughts for short periods every day. And then, it is of dire importance to come back, catch up on the issues and use your voice.
If you are a protester, protest. If you are a telephone caller or texter, call or text your national and state representatives and tell them to stand up to this petit tyrant. If you are a voter, please vote, and help get out the vote to put these dangerously incompetent people out of positions where they can cause such great damage to our nation.
Lest We Forget
A revered old friend from high school posted this on FB today:
AI content
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J͏u͏l͏y͏ ͏2͏7͏ ͏a͏t͏ ͏1͏0͏:͏0͏7͏ ͏A͏M͏
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Now would be a good time to remind everyone of these Trump facts, because apparently some people still need the refresher.
Ladies & Gentlemen;
Please meet the President of the United States:
Flew on Epstein’s plane at least seven times. Just friends, I guess.
Pleaded the Fifth more than 400 times in a single deposition. Nothing says “innocent” like refusing to answer a single question about your own business.
34 felony convictions. A record most people would call disqualifying.
91 criminal charges.
Accused of sexual misconduct or assault by at least 26 women. But sure, tell me again how he’s a great guy.
6 corporate bankruptcies. The self proclaimed greatest businessman alive somehow keeps running out of money.
5 draft deferments. Funny how the toughest guy in the room never actually showed up for duty.
4 criminal indictments. Not two. Not three. Four.
2 impeachments. A club of exactly one president.
2 of his own companies convicted of criminal tax fraud. Convicted. Not accused. Convicted.
1 fake university shut down. 1 fake charity shut down.
Even his charity was a grift.
Paid 25 million dollars to settle the Trump University fraud lawsuit because scamming people who believed in you costs money eventually.
Ordered to pay 5 million dollars in the first E Jean Carroll sexual abuse verdict, then hit with 83.3 million more in the second.
A jury said it twice so nobody could pretend it was a fluke.
Ordered to pay 2 million dollars for looting his own so called charity.
Stealing from a charity with his own name on it.
Found liable for business fraud and originally slapped with a penalty topping 450 million dollars, later thrown out on appeal while the fraud finding itself stuck to him anyway.
First president in modern history to increase the deficit every single year of a full term. Fiscal responsibility, apparently, was always just a talking point.
Kept the debt to GDP ratio above 100 percent for his entire first term.
Presided over the largest single day point drop in Dow Jones history at the time. So much for the guy who claimed to be a genius with money.
Set the record for the longest government shutdown in US history in his first term at 35 days, then couldn’t resist beating his own miserable record in his second term with a 43 day shutdown, followed by yet another shutdown just months later. Encore nobody asked for.
Added roughly 2.25 trillion dollars to the national debt in his first year back in office alone, pushing the debt past 39 trillion dollars.
Somebody remind me who the party of fiscal discipline is again.
Pushed through the largest defense budget increase since World War Two while the debt kept climbing anyway.
Purged more than 300,000 federal employees in his first year back.
Efficient, if your goal is chaos.
Pardoned nearly 1,600 January 6 Capitol rioters on his very first day back in office, including Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Law and order, except when it’s inconvenient.
At least 40 of those pardoned rioters have already been rearrested, charged, or sentenced for new crimes since walking free. Shocking absolutely nobody.
His family’s crypto ventures, including a meme coin and World Liberty Financial, pulled in more than 1.4 billion dollars in disclosed earnings while he sat in the Oval Office.
Draining the swamp was apparently code for filling his own pockets.
Sent the National Guard into American cities at a cost of nearly 500 million taxpayer dollars in 2025 alone.
His own tariffs are projected to cost the average American household more than 2,500 dollars this year.
You’re paying for this. Not China. You.
Now sitting at one of the lowest approval ratings of his second term, stuck in the high 30s while inflation and gas prices make everyday life harder.
None of this is a conspiracy theory, a rumor, or something you saw in a group chat.
It is the actual, documented record, sitting in plain sight for anyone willing to look.
So the next time someone tells you to relax and give him a chance, ask them how many more indictments, judgments, and shutdown records he needs to rack up before that chance runs out.
INTLXPATR: Wait! What about the wall that Mexico is going to pay for?
The tariffs that China will pay for?
The promise that he has nothing to do with Project 2025?
When the U.S. Guts the State Department
The new diminished Department of State showed this slide at a recent global conference, which misplaces every single African Country. Take a look. The Côte d’Ivoire, like it’s name, has a coast. The map shows it is landlocked. The nations are scattered. In Africa, right enough, but with no concern for their actual location. The Department of State took full responsibility and pointed the finger at a young person who OK’d an AI reprentation of the map, and who clearly had no idea where the nations really were.
State Department professionals were once educated. They were once conscientious about presentations. This map is more than inaccurate. It is disrespectful.
Please. Bring back professionalism. Please. Bring back real facts, data, and respectful behavior. Bring back a focus on creating and maintaining diplomatic relationships. Our current representation brings shame and disrespect upon our country.
We are neither feared nor respected “like never before.” The world looks in horror at our tasteless, ignorant, ill-mannered leader’s infatuation with trophies, gilt, flattery, and explosions, at the cost of dignified, peaceful relationships with our allies.
Life is so much smoother with friends, allies, and good will.
If nothing else, get the maps right.
How a Grown Up Ends a War and Wins
It is not my intention here to give our current president a strategy for a gracious exit from the War with Iran. I am writing this only because I believe he is incapable of adopting my solution.
Years ago, my very smart husband, AdventureMan and I played strategic board games. One time, I beat him in only six moves, at which point he stood up and stomped his foot (a very strong statement from a normally restrained man) and yelled “You can’t do that! It’s unorthodox!”
And that’s how wars are won. Yes, you can waste billions on sophisticated weaponry, and have a lot of fun with bombs and destruction. High T at work. You can also waste lives, and I believe that is a crime against your country. Our young people are not expendable.
We’ve all started fights we can’t win. It’s wired into us as human beings. What is the way out?
“I’ve made a big mistake. I take full responsibility. I’m sorry I got us into this mess, and now, I am going to do everything in my power to make it right.”
Those words, and the humility it takes to say them, save relationships, re-establish peace, and a firm foundation for moving forward.
It takes a grown-up to say them. It takes a grown-up to even think them. To continue on a losing path is wasteful and self-destructive.
We are not winning.
It’s time to own up, exit, and begin rebuilding our alliances.
New York’s Participation Trophy for Trump and his Iranian debacle. Everyone invited to contribute; no achievement too paltry to commemorate. The more gilt, the merrier.
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