We are scheduled to fly from Honolulu to Seattle in 8 days, then on to Iceland for a few days.  Never been there.  Then board a cruise to Montreal, with a positioning sail to optimize our chances of seeing the total eclipse of the sun on 12August2026.  We'll drop by Greenland for a couple of stops.  From Montreal, fly to Vancouver to board another cruise back to Hawaii.  So today, the topic is related to cruising. I'll begin first with Hurricane Fausto, now at 85 MPH, centered 900 miles from Hilo, and moving west at 14 MPH.  Hurricane force winds extend through a 90-mile eye, with tropical storm-force winds a radius 175 miles out.  The good news is that Fausto is expected to weaken and slide by north of the Hawaiian Islands. Next, those ongoing wars. Day 1,613 of the Ukraine-Russia War, and really Day 4,539 days since the Crimea takeover.  Today, mostly drone attacks these days, with no peace talk progress. Day 149 of the U.S./Israel vs Iran War f...

But first, a segue into the make-up White House Correspondent's Dinner last night, the one added to the first attempt on April 25, when a Trump assassin showed up.  This second one was almost as chaotic. Of course, you must know that President Trump refused to attend any of these dinners in his first term. His first appearance was on 25April2026. From the liberal viewpoint, CNN : Trump bombed at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — and proved its point Members of the media mocking a leader’s dismal performance on live TV and all across the internet? In some other countries, that’s a criminal offense. But in the US, it’s the norm, so maybe Trump’s speech unwittingly underscored the theme of the dinner: America’s robust First Amendment protections. In a rambling hour-long speech, Trump insulted journalists by name, repurposed old nicknames for political opponents, made a strange number of fat jokes that weren’t funny at all, and sounded mad at his unnamed writers for giving him w...

 But first, from Time magazine: $100 The price of oil hit $100 a barrel on Thursday for the first time since May. It comes after the Houthis of Yemen struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, enforcing a long-threatened blockade of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, another shipping route crucial to the world’s energy supplies. From the New York Times (Sam Sifton) this morning: The Trump administration has imposed new tariffs on goods from more than 80 countries . The tariffs, along with the war in Iran, are threatening the U.S. economy . For my readership, here are some upcoming journeys. August-September 2026:   Total Eclipse of the Sun . Ever see a total eclipse of the Sun?   This is the one where you will feel that extra chill, gets almost dark and some animals think it is the end of the day.   My one experience was on 11July1991 over the Big Island of Hawaii on by wife's birthday .  To quote that posting, it is pretty amazing that the coverage is...