And so it begins

Three huge volcanic eruptions have occurred in the past three days in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines, and the Pentagon is releasing UFO files.

Also...

Those two things have opposite intentions.  What will the universe assume?

The US Central Command (Centcom) claims it has struck two “unladen” Iranian-flagged oil tankers it said were attempting to violate the US blockade by entering an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.

[...]

Centcom claimed it had “disabled both tankers after firing precision munitions into their smokestacks”. The statement added that US forces had also disabled a third Iranian-flagged vessel on Wednesday. “All three vessels are no longer transiting to Iran.”

On Thursday Iran accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas. The US insisted it struck in retaliation.

  The Guardian

They fired on "unladen" tankers? What blockade are "unladen" tankers breaking? Anyway, I thought we were supposed to be in a ceasefire.

This just gets crazier and crazier. WTF?

And Trump is just as delusional as ever...

In case you're wondering, he has settled exactly 0 wars.

The victory in Iraq???

In case you're wondering - he hasn't been reading.  He doesn't read.  But the part about him knowing nothing about it could be said about everything.

UPDATE 05/13/2026:  Another huge volcanic eruption.

The truth will set you free

President Donald Trump’s abrupt reversal on his plan to help ships go through the Strait of Hormuz came after a key Gulf ally suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation, according to two U.S. officials.

  NBC

No, not Spain. Well, yes Spain, but more impactful...definitely more shocking...

Trump surprised Gulf allies by announcing “Project Freedom” on social media Sunday afternoon, the officials said, angering leadership in Saudi Arabia. In response, the Kingdom informed the U.S. it would not allow the U.S. military to fly aircraft from Prince Sultan Airbase southeast of Riyadh or fly through Saudi airspace to support the effort, the officials said.

A call between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not resolve the issue, the two U.S. officials said, forcing the president to pause Project Freedom in order to restore U.S. military access to the critical airspace.

[...]

The source said Saudi Arabia was “very supportive of the diplomatic efforts” by Pakistan to broker a deal between Iran and the U.S. to end the war.

[...]

A Middle Eastern diplomat said the U.S. did not coordinate Project Freedom with the Omanis until after Trump made the announcement.

[...]

Trump had announced the operation over the weekend as a way to break Iran’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, and his top national security leaders spent much of Tuesday talking up the effort in public briefings at the Pentagon and White House, only to have the president suddenly halt the operation roughly 36 hours after it began.

The U.S. military had been lining up a number of additional ships in the Gulf for transit through the strait when the operation was stopped, a U.S. official said. U.S. Central Command had earlier announced that two U.S. flagged ships had made it through the strait as part of Project Freedom.

[...]

Military aircraft were critical to protect ships during Project Freedom, essentially providing a defensive umbrella.

[...]

Saudi Arabia and Jordan are critical for allowing aircraft to base there, Kuwait is critical for overflight, and Oman for both overflight and naval logistics.

Trump thinks he can just command the world, and the world is letting him know he's delusional.

But what did he tell us was his reason for pausing Project Freedom?

Trump said Project Freedom would be “paused for a short period of time to see whether or not” an agreement to resolve the war “can be finalized and signed.”

No mention of Saudi Arabia cockblocking him.

Nice work, Donald

 

Countdown to "Razin" Caine being fired

 This is an unverified story, but making the rounds...

US President Donald Trump was blocked access to his country's nuclear codes by a senior US military chief, according to bombshell reports.

Retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson said on popular YouTube show Judging Freedom that during an emergency meeting on Saturday, Trump tried to access the nuclear codes.

[...]

"One report coming out of that meeting at the White House is that Trump wanted to... use the nuclear codes and General Dan Caine stood up and said 'No'."

"He invoked his privileged as the head of the military, so to speak. It was apparently quite a blow-up... There's some very bizarre things going on in DC."

[...]

[I]t comes following reports that Donald Trump was barred from the Situation Room by military advisors during a critical Iran rescue operation.

The US President was reportedly shut out of discussions amid concerns about his furious temperament.

Top administration officials believed his volatility could compromise the operation.

  MSN

If Caine gets fired, you'll know the story is true.

And, if you didn't think Trump was absolutely batshit crazy, check out this crazy shit:

And, speaking of firing military leaders...

First, it’s worth emphasizing that Phelan was a curious choice for Navy secretary in the first place. He never served in the Navy and had no connection to the Navy or the U.S. Armed Forces before the president tapped him for the role. The gig appears to have been a reward for being Trump’s pal who helped raise a lot of money for the Republican’s 2024 campaign.

[...]

As viewers of “The Rachel Maddow Show” might recall, Phelan was listed in Epstein’s flight logs and appeared to have traveled on at least two transatlantic flights with Epstein. These revelations reached the public two months ago, though Team Trump quickly shrugged them off.

[...]

A related report in The Wall Street Journal described what sounded like a classic behind-the-scenes power struggle, with the Pentagon chief having grown frustrated by Phelan’s “close relationship” with Donald Trump: “Phelan regularly chats with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club, just down the street from his own Florida home, and told lawmakers last year that he exchanges texts with the president about shipbuilding in the middle of the night.”

The same article, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, added that Hegseth “worked to undermine Phelan” after he “pitched the idea for a modern battleship directly to Trump, bypassing Hegseth.”

[...]

Just three weeks before Phelan’s ouster, Hegseth also fired his Army chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, the Army’s top officer, even as the war in Iran raged on. MS NOW confirmed that two other Army generals were fired alongside George: Gen. David Hodne, the head of Army Transformation and Training Command, and Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the 26th chief of chaplains.

Those developments came on the heels of Hegseth forcing out Col. Dave Butler, who worked closely with George, which came after the defense secretary parted ways with three-star Lt. Gen. Joe McGee, which came just two weeks after the public learned about Adm. Alvin Holsey resigning as head of the U.S. Southern Command, reportedly at Hegseth’s request.

[...]

Just days before Holsey stepped down at Southern Command, the Pentagon chief fired Navy chief of staff Jon Harrison. (His ouster roughly coincided with two high-profile military retirements — Gen. Bryan Fenton, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, and Gen. Thomas Bussiere, a top Air Force commander — though it’s unclear whether their departures had anything to do with Hegseth.)

There was no ambiguity, however, when in late August the defense secretary fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Rear Adm. Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversaw the Naval Special Warfare Command.

Four days earlier, Gen. David Allvin, the chief of staff of the Air Force, was also shown the door.

The broader purge also includes Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, who was both the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency; Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. James Slife, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force; Adm. Linda Fagan, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard; Adm. Lisa Franchetti; Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short; Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Berger III, the Army’s top military lawyer; Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer, the Air Force’s top military lawyer; and Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee.

Political scientist Caitlin Talmadge, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who specializes in foreign policy and military operations, recently noted via social media, “Firing senior officers for cause is one thing. Firing them repeatedly on this scale and with no explanation is unprecedented in our nation’s history.”

  MSNow

Running a smooth operation there at Defense.

Stalin-level purges.

That was fast

 

The reason, of course, is that Iran made the deal on the condition that Trump remove the US blockade there.  And he hasn't.  Expect him to scream about Iran not honoring the deal, and possibly using that as an excuse to carry out more atrocities.

Whatever he says, believe the opposite

 

Strait of Hormuz negotiations

 

I have no doubt there's another bleat bragging about how he pressured them into it.  Apparently, he insists his blockade of Iran's ports remains in effect.

But what are the conditions?

Ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which is scheduled as of now for 10 days.  AND, removal of the US blockade.

AND "[S]hips are not allowed to pass if they or their cargoes are linked to hostile nations."  So, I guess that includes the US and Israel.

Which is why previous presidents didn't pull such a stupid stunt as attacking Iran.

UPDATE 06:03 pm:

Delusional Don

 

Massive numbers! Right now.   

No, they're not.  

Trump 2.0 - Fuck diplomacy

 

Also...

A picture worth 1,000 words

 

Trump is a sick, sick man

 

UPDATE 01:18 pm:

UPDATE 04:18 pm:  I'm going to post this here as an evidentiary document to Trump's total mental deterioration, but I haven't read it yet.

He requires an intervention.

Does he have no intelligence on the matter?  *

Well, obviously, Melania did know him.  We have photographic evidence. But the bigger question is: Will Vance put on his clown shoes and praise the circus ringleader even after this?  

Sounds like we're about to get some new information.

"The false smears about me from mean spirited and politically motivated individuals and entities, looking to cause damage to my good name to gain financially and climb politically must stop," she said at the White House.

  Axios

Her good name.

"I am not Epstein's victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump," she said, adding she first "crossed paths" with Epstein at an event she attended with Trump in 2000.

The first lady's speech also addressed an email she sent to Ghislaine Maxwell that she said could not be "categorized as anything more than casual correspondence."

She did not elaborate, but the statement was perhaps a reference to one of the tranche of messages released by the Justice Department that was signed "Love, Melania."

[...]

The first lady called for Epstein's victims to have the opportunity to testify under oath before Congress.

She did not answer any questions shouted by reporters as she left.

Knowing that's not going to happen as long as Republicans hold the power.

*  Oh my.  He truly is demented.

UPDATE 04/10/2026:

Obviously there's some info about Melania about to be revealed which she's trying to get ahead of.  

And, hmmmm....

On the same day First Lady Melania Trump stood in the White House Grand Foyer to deny any connection to Jeffrey Epstein, a series of posts from a woman named Amanda Ungaro started racking up hundreds of thousands of views on X.

The posts were direct replies to Melania's archived First Lady account. They were personal, combative, and specific. Ungaro claimed a relationship with the First Lady spanning two decades. She referenced being detained by ICE. She threatened legal action. One post pulled in over 300,000 views. Another topped 46,000.

[...]

Amanda Ungaro is a Brazilian former model who arrived in the United States around 2002. She was 16 or 17 years old. According to a New York Times investigation and reporting corroborated by multiple outlets, she flew to New York on Jeffrey Epstein's private plane from Paris.

Her modeling agent at the time was Jean-Luc Brunel, who was later accused of procuring young women for Epstein. Brunel died in a French jail in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges of rape and sexual assault of minors.

Ungaro has been cited in recent discussions as a survivor of the Epstein network.

In New York, Ungaro became the partner of Paolo Zampolli, an Italian-American modeling agent. Zampolli is the man who introduced Donald Trump to Melania Knauss in 1998 — a fact both the Trumps and Zampolli have publicly confirmed for years.

Zampolli and Ungaro were together for roughly two decades. They had a son. Both secured United Nations ambassadorships — Zampolli representing Dominica, Ungaro representing Grenada. They attended Donald Trump's first inauguration in 2017 and, according to reporting, sat at Melania's table during the dinner.

[...]

Zampolli currently serves as Trump's special representative for global partnerships and sits on the board of the Kennedy Center.

The relationship between Zampolli and Ungaro ended bitterly. They separated permanently in 2021, and a custody battle over their teenage son followed.

In June 2025, Ungaro was arrested in Miami on fraud charges related to a medical spa. According to the New York Times, Zampolli saw an opportunity. He contacted David Venturella, a senior ICE official, and explained that his ex was in the country on a long-expired visa. During a call to ICE's Miami field office, Venturella noted the case was important to someone close to the White House. ICE agents picked Ungaro up before she could post bail. She was deported to Brazil.

[...]

There is no verified evidence that Ungaro's posts prompted Melania Trump's Epstein statement on Thursday.

  Yahoo

How would you get "verified evidence"? There's no doubt in my mind why Melania went in haste to the press. She looked pissed when she came out, like she could barely contain her rage. These impulsive Trumps always hurt themselves.

On the same day the First Lady used the White House podium to say the lies about her and Epstein needed to end, a woman who arrived in this country on Epstein's plane — whose ex-partner introduced the Trumps, who sat at Melania's inauguration table, and who was deported after that same ex-partner contacted ICE — was directing posts at Melania from Brazil that were being seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

Connect the dots.

Ungaro claimed close proximity to Melania’s circle for years, referencing interactions with her family. The post escalated with a direct warning:

“So shut your mouth when speaking about me. Because I will expose everything I know.”

  Southhill Enterprise

In these messages, the account claims long-term proximity to Melania Trump and threatens to reveal undisclosed information.

“I was around you for 20 years… I will expose everything I know,” the account reportedly stated.

Despite the strong language, the authenticity of the account has not been independently confirmed. While it carries verification indicators on the platform, such markers do not always guarantee identity verification in the traditional sense.

This raises an important point: viral visibility does not equal factual credibility.

  Fox Daily

Sure, Fox. You got a better explanation for Melania's sudden behavior?

Speaking of the Strait of Hormuz

 

UPDATE 04/10/2026:

Fuckin' nuts

 

UPDATE 09:03 am:

UPDATE 11:53 am:

I've seen suggestions that Trump posted that insane bit of batshit because he was pumped by the rescue of that downed pilot.  Sounds right.  He's losing, and he's blood thirsty.  A slight win makes him orgasmic.

Also, he's fucking nuts.

UPDATE 05:20 pm:

The GOP may never get Drudge back.