Kilauea goes off!

Busy morning. Vic and Splash both had time in Pearl Harbor, so news about what was happening in the island chain was of personal interest to them. And of at least general interest to all the Old Hands with Pacific experience.
This has been an extended tropical spectacle, since just two weeks after Kilauea’s last episode, Episode 53 of the eruption has begun.

Lava started oozing out of the North Vent early yesterday morning, and fountaining began yesterday afternoon if you want to go out and take a look. Current fountains are up to 500 feet, with heights of up to 1,000 feet expected.

So that is Kilauea’s same old chaos in a new Episode.

There is a lot of that going around as we wander now through Woke One and Woke Two, as the old Socialist slogans are hammered into something that will seem a little more moderate as we approach the mid-terms and look improbably centrist by the time we get to the Generals in 2028.

So, there is that predictable tango in National Politics.

There is a lot of Russian news. Putin returned U.S. Marine vet Robert Gilman after he had been held for more than four years over a violent misunderstanding on a train. We are glad he is back and hope the return without an exchange of hostages could mean something good in North Atlantic relations.
The Russian war with Ukraine has a new and nasty element today. The low-cost, high-irritation drone exchanges are now targeting the Black Sea docks where the wheat harvest will be loaded.

The Russians hit Izmail, Ukraine’s largest Danube port. That attack follows a big Ukrainian strike on Novorossiysk, one of Russia’s most strategically important ports on the Black Sea. Disruption to the ports could expand the economic damage from energy to food as winter comes on. Recent reporting confirms the intensifying Ukrainian campaign against Russian Black Sea port and energy infrastructure.

Things are lively over in the Gulfs, where the mighty USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed for nearly a year without a break. Sailors are reportedly trying to jump off the ship and into the blue water far below to get some kind of a break. Reports describe multiple suicide attempts amid an extraordinarily extended deployment, including sailors attempting to go overboard.

The blockade continued as U.S. forces disabled another cargo ship after it tried to run the blockade of Iran’s ports. It is the third vessel disabled since July.

And that brings us back to the Strait of Hormuz. The closure or disruption of that narrow waterway does not mean there are no other ways to get oil out of the Gulf. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have pipelines designed specifically to get crude to terminals outside the Strait, while Iran has its own smaller route to Jask on the Gulf of Oman.

Oil Pipelines That Bypass the Strait of Hormuz

Those pipes help. They do not replace Hormuz. And that distinction could become increasingly important if the maritime unpleasantness continues.

Down south, on the Bab al-Mandeb, Iran-backed Houthi rebels hit a cargo ship off Yemen, killing six. These are the first deaths there in this round of fighting.

All that seems to be the same chaos in a different wrapper.

This morning, there is a lot of that going around.

It is going to be an interesting 81 days to the mid-terms!

Copyright 2026 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com