July 11, 1915, SMS Konigsberg last stand. Art by Paul Wright
Canceled
The Convair Kingfish reconnaissance aircraft design was Convair’s entry in the competition to replace the Lockheed U-2 for the CIA’s Project Oxcart mission. The Kingfish was defeated by the Lockheed A-12 in 1959.
Bullet Points:
** Has this ever happened to you?
** CAUGHT ON CAM: Democrat Arizona Superior Court Judge Kristyne Schaaf-Olson resigned days after police body camera footage showed her urinating and pinching off and dropping a solid in public near the Courthouse Plaza.
** When you treat management with the same disrespect they show you, they don’t like it.
** Voyagers 1 & 2 – Voyager spacecraft revealed a remarkable discovery at the edge of our solar system: a vast region of superheated plasma, reaching temperatures between 30,000 and 50,000 Kelvin. This area, encountered by both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 as they crossed the heliopause, the boundary where the pressure of interstellar space stops the solar wind, is sometimes referred to as a “wall of fire.” Despite these extreme temperatures, the region poses no danger to the spacecraft because of its incredibly low particle density; the high temperatures reflect particle speed, not the heat we experience. Scientists believe this heat is caused by plasma compression and magnetic reconnection, which release large amounts of energy. Voyager’s findings revealed that the boundary of the heliosphere is far more complex and energetic than previously thought. Even decades after their launch, the Voyager probes continue to offer groundbreaking insights into the dynamic and mysterious frontier between our solar system and interstellar space.
** Beach take-off with MRSBRM.
** Trying to figure out the mental health hotline.
** (Economist) A few miles south of Salt Lake City, in Utah County, the town of Payson is on parade. Toddlers run between trucks that tug floats carrying cheerleaders and footballers. Seven beauty queens wave from a giant watermelon; the next float bears 36 bagpipers. Every performer in this annual celebration is a child. All told, it takes them two hours to pour onto the streets. A healthy society requires children – healthy, happy, well-educated children. They are, in essence, the antidote to the childless left.
** Pardons – the left responds to the autopen pardons. This is well outside of the Constitutional framework. They need to be voided. Take it to the Supreme Court and fight it if you’d like.
** Would you rather lock up toothpaste in stores or lock up criminals? It’s come down to either/or. Jails are for short-term incarceration, but many jurisdictions have work farms where prisoners grow food for the inmates. Make incarceration at hard labor.
** Was life better in the Middle Ages? The question is explored here.
Electricity Prices
In Arizona
(more here) I don’t know whether it was a wall stop or not. I suspect that it was based on circumstances. Arizona Department of Public Safety (Highway Patrol) troopers seized 233 pounds of cocaine—valued at approximately $3 million—from a semi-truck traveling on I-17. DPS says the illicit cargo was hidden in an aftermarket compartment inside the trailer and was being smuggled from California to New Jersey. The driver was arrested and booked on multiple felony charges.
Even though the border wall is in place and there are interdictions at sea underway, there is a lot of hard street drugs in the system. It has been stored by the ton across the USA. At times, the supply dwindles with consumption, and the narcos make these midnight runs.
At Bass Pro Shop
Black Bear Breaks Into Bass Pro Shop, Has All You Can Eat Buffet. Overnight security footage shows a black bear breaking into a Bass Pro Shop and raiding the live fish tanks, eating nearly every fish in sight. After his feast, the bear wandered into the hunting section and passed out on a pile of duck decoys. By morning, employees found him snoring like he owned the place. Online, he’s already being called “Bass Pro’s new mascot.”
The Climate Conformity Caucus
This Wall Street Journal opinion piece announces that the “climate conformity caucus” is finally breaking apart. It highlights Bill Gates’ recent shift in thinking on climate change as key evidence, citing an article that details it.
Gates moves away from his previous alarmist stance in his 2021 book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” in which he described global warming as potentially making Earth unlivable and causing catastrophic human impacts. Now, in an essay tied to the upcoming COP30 climate conference, he describes rising temperatures as a “serious problem” but not an existential threat that will “end civilization.”
He criticizes the “doomsday view” for misallocating resources that could be better used for practical adaptations to improve lives in a warmer world, echoing ideas from climate policy skeptic Bjorn Lomborg.
Illegal Alien Healthcare
Team Hakeem is lying to the American people. Don’t grasp your chest and announce that the shock is killing you. It’s what they do, all the time. Hundreds of millions of dollars in direct and indirect spending are going to pick up the tab for the explosion of illegal aliens in this country. An investigation by the nonprofit government watchdog Open The Books finds illegal immigrants have benefited from nearly $200 million in direct federal health care-related grants since fiscal year 2021.
That total doesn’t include indirect taxpayer funding for illegal aliens through Medicaid, estimated by the Congressional Budget Office at around $27 billion from FY 2017-2023, according to a new Open The Books report exclusively provided to The Federalist.
And then there’s the “estimated $70 billion annually in education spending for ‘undocumented migrants’ and their children. “When elected officials argue that taxpayer dollars aren’t going to illegal immigrants, that just isn’t true,” Open The Books CEO John Hart told The Federalist in an email. “Taxpayers have a right to know that billions of their dollars are flowing to illegal immigrants in direct and indirect benefits for health care, education, and more, sometimes in the form of gratuitous earmarks.”
Follow the Money
A new investigative report published by Americans for Public Trust finds that five major foreign charities—based in the U.K., Denmark, and Switzerland—have contributed nearly $2 billion to U.S. policy-advocacy organizations since 2020. While U.S. law prohibits foreign donations directly supporting political campaigns, the report shows that these funds funnel into issue advertising, lobbying, “get-out-and-vote” efforts, and climate litigation rather than candidate giving.
The report’s authors argue that this influx of foreign money poses a threat to American democratic processes by enabling the shaping of domestic policy battles from abroad.
Among the major donors, the Quadrature Climate Foundation (UK) awarded about $520 million to 41 U.S. groups; the Oak Foundation (Switzerland) also funded U.S. nonprofits engaged in litigation and advocacy on climate, labor, and civil rights issues.
The crux: the report signals a broadening of influence campaigns into U.S. policy-making, raising questions for you about transparency, foreign influence, and the intersection of global funding flows with American politics.
Identify the Ship
1
The design of this class of ships was heavily influenced by the Washington Naval Treaty, which limited cruisers to a maximum of 10,000 tons displacement and a maximum main battery caliber of 8 inches (203 mm). They did not envision the role that naval aviation would play in an upcoming war, nor the impact that submarines would have on capital ships.
2
Early in the war, the concept of the torpedo as the main battery held until the torpedoes proved unreliable. On some ships of this class, torpedo tubes gave way to 40mm AA mounts. Depth charges (total number and per pattern) were also increased to vessels assigned to convoy force protection.
3
A different class of DD from the ship pictured above showed an evolution in thinking. Still, the reality of combat in World War II was different from what was anticipated, as the destroyers were used as the Swiss Army Knife solution for almost every problem.
4
Possibly one of the best fighting destroyer classes historically. In this early war photo (below), she has two sets of torpedo tubes. One set was replaced by port- and starboard-mounted quad 40 mm AA mounts, making her a more formidable anti-aircraft asset. For ASW, two stern-mounted racks could hold 26 depth charges. Six K-guns, three on each side, could project charges away from the ship’s sides. The total number of depth charges was typically between 30 and 40, though initial designs proposed 28. Later in the war, two hedgehog mounts were placed on either side of the #2 gun.
A hull number is visible, providing a specific ID on the ship if you can make it out. My father served on this ship in the Okinawa Campaign, where a kamikaze struck it (below). These ships could survive very significant battle damage. Ten officers and 67 men were killed, including the Commanding Officer; 36 were missing and presumed lost. The engineering officer (LTJG) took command. Though she was out of the fight, she made it to Ulithi for basic repairs and then returned to San Francisco on her own power, conned from a platform built on the #1 stack. “Can do.” My father was thrown from the ship on impact, and another rescuing destroyer plucked him from the water with some shrapnel injuries. Some of the men, bleeding in the water, were taken by sharks. She returned to the Far East during the Korean War.
Parting Shot
End
(1) Northampton class CA.
(2) USS Sampson, Somers class DD
(3) USS Winslow, Porter class DD.
(4) USS Hazelwood Fletcher class DD.
– Kle.
Excellent
1 ?
2 is USS Sampson a Somers class destroyer.
3 is USS Winslow a Porter-class destroyer.
4 is USS Hazelwood a Fletcher-class destroyer
Very good. Kle nailed #1 above.
Electricity – and that’s only the cost per KW/H. Here in R.I. at least,
there’s another ten cents or more tacked on in fees and crap.
– Kle.
Identify the Ship:
1. USS Northampton
2. USS Sampson
3. USS Winslow
4. USS Hazelwood
Very good!
Arizona seizure and work farms; Recently read of a large sting / seizure of drugs in Seattle. With supplies being chocked off will rehab centers need expansion?
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My brief experience with recovery and recovery and rehab people has led me to believe that work / purpose of any kind is vital for addictive and criminal personalities. They seem to thrive in structured environments. The U.S. is desperately needing a skilled labor force, like yesterday. Can it be filled from within?
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Voluntary participation would be far better than impressionment. Can a pathway be provided that is so inviting that there is a waiting list for a military type service commitment? Or consequences increased to where it’s trip to Walter Reed or else?
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The few that excelled, in my micro observation, found special interests like sports, art, music. Many needed to move on from the A.A. / N.A. social circles and integrate within “normal” social structures.
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Hard labor for the inpentanent? Yes, definitely. Calluses on the hands of career criminals along side the scandalous scoundrels embezzling “Americans” taxes might seem inhumane but may achieve a greater reduction in percentage points of expense, as well as true rehabilitation.
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X2 on the Lambert homelessness solution model previously posted. Far more plausible than my rambling ideas!
Voluntary participation in a pathway out of homelessness is always better, but from personal experience (however limited), a lot of them are in addiction cycles that can only be broken first by drying out under medical supervision. However narcotic recidivism is very high so one thing must be replaced by another and it takes time and is expensive. The mental health problems are more serious.
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I was in Reno, NV, testing drones at Stead Airport (formerly AFB) and ended up on the evening news with Governor Sandoval some years ago. A friend from high school called people who knew me and got my phone number. He was homeless with his son, his wife having passed. Long story short, a lot had to do with physical problems along with mental illness. I found him a good job with the State Government in Carson City, but he wouldn’t show up to work, and much of it had to do with depression. He wasn’t addicted, he was just messed up. There wasn’t a program to put him into to fix ALL that he had going on, but I kept at it. He had a heart attack and died while I was trying. Everyone’s problems are different, and some are so complicated that they require a complicated solution. Any systematic approach to homelessness requires circumspection. Criminals enter the justice system to pay their debts to society. Ill people receive treatment, voluntary confinement, or involuntary, but they’re no longer on the street where they become victims. Women are no longer raped.
Now that Gates wants power plants to feed the enormous AI appetite, Glow Bull Warming isn’t such a big deal after all.
Gates is unsavory. That power plant in Nevada was a notorious cash cow during its construction, and that’s not how we should approach nuclear power IMHO. How do you keep the programs honest when government money is involved and kickbacks are demanded?
Gates
He, or someone using his name, is dropping some serious money in Kemmerer, WY to build small reactors. Has he had a change of heart? Is he going where the money goes?
Circa 1993, we took in trade a very low mileage DeLorean and he came to the dealership and bought it. I handled the sale. Bluntly, his negotiating skills were poor. Our only concession was not doing a credit check when he paid by personal check. He did try to negotiate; guess he wasn’t accustomed to being told, “No”.
I’ve had limited experience with high rollers but have heard buying in person is part of a collector’s enjoyment. We never took seriously the scammers trying to pass themselves off as agents for some will known name.
Small Modular Reactors are the future. It’s a good business to be in.
Small modular reactors and commercial versions of Navy reactors were the future in the late 60’s and early 70’s, but the KGB-backed anti-nuke idiots stopped that from happening.
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Seriously, most of what we know about building reactors we ‘knew’ 50 years ago but weren’t ‘allowed’ to do.
I’m just an old and wildly out of date 11B who probably wouldn’t be safe with a shotgun in a Jon boat, but I lookit these new ships with one gun forward and think about those WWII destroyers I grew up reading about (big tip of the steel pot to all those studs on the Hazelwood) literally festooned with guns and can’t help but think something ain’t right.
I’m a dinosaur who thinks that guns are still a good idea on warships. The Arleigh Burke-class DDGs have the Mk 45 5-inch (127mm) naval gun. It is a more capable weapons system than anything available during WW2 (the last naval war). You don’t need a lot of them, but as with the Ticonderoga Class CGs, two are a good idea (two is one, one is none). It can fire up to 20 rounds per minute and has a range of over 13 nautical miles. I’m not keen on smaller rifles than those on warships, including FFGs. The 76mm guns are popular with Euro Frigates and the US Navy had them on the FFG 7s but I’m not a fan.
Granted that those DD’s and DE’s of Taffey 3 got murdered for their efforts, their small caliber weaponry (especially compared to their opposition) and their marksmanship with those guns before they got blowed out of the water carried the day after all. Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors scairt hell out of me, that’s for sure. I should think there would be a lesson there (several, actually) but like taking tanks away from the Jarheads and trading A-10’s for crop dusters, what do I know? Another coupla dumbass moves, in my opinion.
The modern, Italian-designed auto 76mm naval gun is a great gun. Can do a variety of rounds, from solids to HE to various programmed cannister and such so they can be used as anti-air (planes and missiles) and anti-small boat. Having one (stern) or two (one on each broadside) wouldn’t be a bad thing.-
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But, yes, the 5′ 54 caliber gun should be the minimal mainstay of naval guns on frigates and up. Though an auto-loading 155mm gun would be better on any cruiser or bloated destroyer (Zumwalts.) Though if you’re doing manual-loaded, well, that ain’t bad either.
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The 2″/57mm gun isn’t a bad tertiary weapon, but farking sucks against anything larger than a fast drug boat. Overall mount is expensive, but the individual rounds or even 15 of the rounds are far cheaper than any anti-boat missile.
“work farms where prisoners grow food for the inmates”
My oldest son, who had been in Petersburg-Low, jumped on the tractor I had just gotten a few weeks ago saying he could drive it.
I asked where he learned that, and he said “on the farm”, by which he meant while in prison.
BTW, I’m not proud of who my son was. I’m very proud of who he is.
Making the best of a lousy situation…good on him. Besides – what I call “tractor therapy” – does wonders for the psyche.
I’m not a penologist, but I think that the work farms (honor farms) are a good use of a prisoner’s time. You can’t use them for maximum-security inmates, but most inmates aren’t maximum-security problems.
From another page of the “everything you need to know” about the Winsome Earle-Sears vs Spanberger is that the NAACP is pushing the white dummy over the black military veteran. If you weren’t already aware that the NAACP wasn’t at all working for the “Advancement of Colored People,” but only those with that overall left wing aim, well, you probably aren’t aware of much.
The Communists don’t like the idea of Winsome Earle-Sears, which makes me like her. Spanberger, a failed CIA case officer, is a lump of protoplasm. Maybe she could find a job mopping floors somewhere, and she’d do ok. Likely, she’d be a failure at that, too.
I donated. I don’t live there. I donated for her last run, too.
Only out of state donations I’ve made.
A-12. Somewhere in a dusty box I have an article in one of the science magazines (Popular Science or some such) about the development of the engines. There is a photo of an engine running in a test stand at night. The operating temperature of the rear one third or so is glowing red hot. At one point they were experiencing bolt failures. They were able to backtrack to the technician, tool box, and wrench used to install the bolts. Turned out that the wrenches were chrome plated. During assembly, tiny bits to chrome would flake off onto the bolt head. When red hot, the chrome would alloy with the bolt metal, changing the composition, and the bolt would fail.
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Electricity. We arrived in Texas from Kalifornia in 2015. Shopping for electricity was like coming up for air. We are about half way into our current contract which is for five years. Fixed rate at 8.9 cents. As noted, this does not include delivery or taxes. Delivery is a completely separate company, Oncor.
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USS Northampton. Looks to be a fake bow wave painted on. Interesting.
Looking at that aircraft design proves the point that things imagined today are rarely “new”, but re-imagined with current technologies. Like or not, FLW was decades ahead on radiant floor heating, unfortunately galvanized pipe was not compatible with concrete, whereas today, PEX is the perfect solution.
Team Hakeem is lying to the American people. ”
“Dog bites man” 😁
Something about the opening painting…draws me in to the scene.
***
Winsome Sears…another prime example of “if PDJT announced a total cure for every kind of cancer the Dems/Left would denounce it then demand it stop because it was putting cancer centers out of business.” Can’t fix the galactically demented, like Spanberger. (Why is it these Dem’s always seem to have names fit for memes?)
***
“…Washington Naval Treaty, which limited cruisers to a maximum of 10,000 tons displacement and a maximum main battery caliber of 8 inches (203 mm).”
First thought when reading that was ‘design by the worst sort of appeasement committee’.
***
Foreign Influence: Now look at Soros, Clinton Foundation, WEF, and a host of others…follow the money.
***
In 2001 when we started building our [now prior] Colorado homestead we seriously thought about going off-grid (solar). At the time REA was 6.9c/kwh and I quickly realized I could not make reliable power close to that cheap, let alone managing a solar array infrastructure with ’01 technology (good but not near as good as now). Just left…last bill was 11c/kwh (including all manner of state and local taxes…for a public utility). This ‘higher than it should be’ cost map is a direct result/ripple-effect of the useless “renewable energy” gambit forced by Federal subsidies (“get more of what you subsidize”), coupled to local Democrats thinking these lower producing technologies actually make more energy than the cost to build them….plus…maligning nuclear and ‘clean’ coal for decades.
Every time I see an astronomy article that talks about “magnetic reconnection”, I grind my teeth. Astrophysicists should be required to take electromagnetism classes and learn about real plasma science, including what Hannes Alfven warned about the misinterpretation and misapplication of his early MHD theory.
Here is an excellent post:
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/magnetic-reconnection-vs-double-layers.286458/
I meant to mention earlier that the reference to the SMS Konigsberg sent me on a rabbit trail concerning Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.
I was gone for an hour at least.
I’d read a book about him years ago and started reading about him again.
SMS Konigsberg; A plane in 1915? The caption painting caused my I.Q. to strain researching early aircraft. The Jenny in the painting is a J-3, with un equal lengths of upper and lower wings. Im sure there was elation for every pilot training when the T-6 Texan came online! Which aircraft(s) excelled in WW1?
A British spotter seaplane for naval gunfire, IIRC.
– Kle.
Congrats on the new grandbaby. Nothing better than being a grandpa.