More Evidence That Trump's Failure to Plan for Closure of the Strait Sank Us

Vance is admitting that the war and rising prices lost us the election. In some logical way, ending Iran's nuclear ambitions should take precedence over short-term financial pain.

Voter are often not logical. High prices are pain right now. A nuke going off in a freighter in an American harbor is a possibility some years from now. That former leftist and present "conservative" Tucker Carlson has been pushing the Israel First explanation of American foreign policy probably played into this effectively.  That stopping the nation that calls us the Great Satan is an America First policy may not seem obvious to voters born after 1979.

It does not help that Republican candidates often sounded tone-deaf like  11/4/26 Time:

Hitefield adds that Hyde-Smith had some “gaffes” during the campaign, when she made some remarks about the rising cost of living that some voters felt were dismissive. For instance, when asked about soaring costs, including beef prices, during an interview with WLOX in February, Hyde-Smith applauded the passing of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill and went on to say, “It is on everybody’s mind. It is certainly me at my house. And you know, you have so many proteins to choose from. And all commodities go through peaks and valleys.”

A Depressing Day: This May Be the End of Electoral Reform

The Babylon Bee a few days ago made fun of Republicans who decided gas prices mattered more than mutilating children. There is doubtless some truth to that. The failure to adequately consider plans for closure of the Strait of Hormuz is perhaps Trump's biggest blunder.

There are signs, however, that the problem is worse than Republican voting.11/3/26 Gateway Pundit:

Pennsylvania resident Jean Franco Urbaez arrived at his polling place in Lower Macungie Township, PA, to vote in person. To his surprise, someone had already voted in person using his identity at 8:11. Urbaez videotaped himself making the discovery until he was told he was not allowed to videotape in the polling place.

This is no surprise. A friend in the Bay Area tells me in 2024, he tracked his mail-in ballot from his mailbox to the election center. To his surprise, he was able to track his wife's mail-in ballot, which was counted the day after the election. She is not a U.S. citizen and has never registered to vote, or voted.

11/3/26 Fox News:

Voting machines in Westchester County, New York, the state's seventh most populous county, are not accepting paper ballots at polling locations throughout the county, the Westchester County Board of Elections said in a statement Tuesday morning.

"The Westchester County Board of Elections (BOE) is aware of an issue involving the paper ballots that is preventing some voting machines from accepting ballots at polling locations throughout the County," the statement read.

The board, in a separate statement issued later in the day, said the issue stemmed from an update to the county's election programming that occurred after initial testing of equipment.

Oh yes, I believe that. As a British friend liked to say, "There are fairies in my garden, too." 

A friend of his moved with his wife to West Point, N.Y, where they voted in the 2024 election. Someone voted in their name in the Bay Area, likely not for the same president.

I was really impressed that Newsom won the recall election after COVID. If anyone should have been vulnerable at that point, it was Newsom. My wife thinks all elections are now so corrupted in Blue States that elections no longer matter.

I suspect until the government starts pushing Jews into boxcars for re-education camps (and the rest of us oppressive white people, shortly thereafter)*, this will continue, with the pretense of elections. 

*This is where it should end. Quite forcefully.

In Spite of Socialist Victory Yesterday, Markets Are Way Up Today

I suspect that in spite of DSA power, the Democrats remain fascist and corporations (especially favorite ones) will still do well.

The Babylon Bee joked a few days ago about Republicans deciding that high fuel prices were more important than child genital mutilation and Irsnian nuclear ambitions. 

Way More Interesting Than Expected

James Thacher's Military Journal 75-6 (1823) recounts his contemporaneous and often eye-witness experience of the war. Some of these stories are not new to me or likely you but there are details that are for me:

October. By some gentlemen from head quarters, near New York, we are amused with an account of a singular machine, invented by a Mr. D. Bushnell of Connecticut, for the purpose of destroying the British shipping by explosion. This novel machine was so ingeniously constructed, that, on examination, Major General Putnam was decidedly of opinion that its operations might be attended with the desired suc- cess ; accordingly he encouraged the inventor, and resolved to be himself a spectator of the experiment on the British shipping in New York harbor. Mr. Bushnell gave to his machine the name of American Turtle or Torpedo. It was constructed on the principles of submarine navigation, and on trial it has been ascertained that it might be rowed horizontally, at any given depth under water, and the adventurer, concealed within, might rise or sink, as occasion re- quires. A magazine of powder was attached to it in such a manner as to be screwed into the bottom of the ship ; and being now disengaged from the ma- chine the operator retires in safety, leaving the in- ternal clock work in motion ; and at the distance of half an hour, or an hour, the striking of a gun lock communicates fire to the powder, and the explosion takes place. It was determined to make the experi ment with this machine in the night, on the ship Eagle, of sixty four guns, on board of which admiral Lord Howe commanded. General Putnam placed himself on the wharf to witness the result. Mr. Bushnell had instructed his brother in the management of the Torpedo with perfect dexterity ; but being taken sick a sergeant of a Connecticut regiment was selected for the business, who, for want of time, could not be properly instructed. He however. succeeded so far as to arrive in safety with his apparatus under the bottom of the ship, when the screw, designed to perforate the copper sheathing, unfortunately struck against an iron plate, near the rudder, which, with the strong current and want of skill in the operator, frustrated the enterprize ; and, as day light had begun to appear, the sergeant abandoned his magazine, and returned in the Torpedo to the shore. In less than half an hour a terrible explosion from the magazine took place, and threw into the air a prodigious column of water, resembling a great water spout, attended with a report like thunder. General Putnam, and others who waited with great anxiety for the result, were exceedingly amused with the astonishment and alarm which this secret explo-sion occasioned on board of the ship. This failure, it is confidently asserted, is not to be attributed to any defect in the principles of this wonderful machine ; as it is allowed to be admirably calculated to execute destruction among the shipping.

The explanation that I have read in the past is that the failure to get an adequate bite into the copper bottom meant that turning the screw just spun the submarine. This makes more sense. 

I Hope This Was Intentionally Unclear

Headline from 11/2/26 BBC News:

Man caught in car with £14k of drugs as a lamb ate chips in the back seat avoids jail

The good news: the lamb was not handcuffed or mug shotted.

It is still a fetching picture of the lamb in the back seat 

Natural Tunnel State Park

Just over the border in Virginia. Railroad runs through a natural tunnel exposed by collapse of sinkhole at both ends. Really big sinkhole, like 300 foot cliffs.

The train still runs daily delivering coal to Eastman Chemical.  The guide said it was for hydrocarbon extraction. 

The trail down to the tunnel is somewhat demanding but there is a chairlift to the bottom. 

Upgrading Broken Focuser

I think I mentioned that a couple telescope parts did not survive the move undamaged. One of them was the refractor's focuser. I bent the damaged parts back into what looked to be the original shapes, but the focuser is rough and it binds. before the move, I had considered replacing the focuser with a dual-speed focuser. These have two knobs; one is the coarse focus typical on telescopes; the other turns at 1/10th speed, allowing very fine focus changes. So I ordered the GSO 2" Linear Bearing Crayford Focuser (made in Taiwan). It is an gorgeous piece of machining:

The only downside is that the flange is 112.5mm OD and the refractor's tube is 125mm ID. So, I need to make an adapter. To quote the opening sequence from The Six-Millionaire Dollar Man:

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. 

At least, I do. I have a 6" 4-jaw chuck. No, Sherline lathes do not normally go this large. In the past, I have made riser blocks for the headstock and tool holder to allow turning big stuff. 

1. I will start with a 6" x 6" aluminum square.

2. Drill and tap a 3/4"-16 center hole. (This is the Sherline headstock spindle size as well as the size of the rotating table adapter.)

3. Remove 6" chuck.

4. Rotate workpiece onto headstock spindle.

5. Turn workpiece to 124.8mm OD.

6. Make riser block for the tilting table on which rotating table will sit. (I need the clearance to rotate this large of a workpiece.)

7. Tilting table to 90 degrees.

8. Put workpiece on rotating table adapter.

9. Turn workpiece 120 degrees at a time. 

10. Center drill each hole.

11. Repeat for two more holes.

12. Replace center drill with twist drill for a through hole deep enough to get through the 112.8mm layer.

13. Return workpiece to 6" chuck on headstock spindle.

14. Use cutting tool to cut 105mm hole.

15. Use boring bore to enlarge center hole to 112.7mm.