SPACE: The two Escapade Mars orbiters are about to head to Mars, using a previously untried flight path.

On November 7, 2026 the two Escapade Mars orbiters that have been loitering in around Lagrange point 2 about a million miles from Earth since their launch in November 2025, will do the engine burn that will send them to Mars, but will follow a flight path never before used.

The graphic to the right, annotated to post here, shows the flight path the two orbiters have taken since launch. By flying out away from Earth and then coming back close, they multiply the effectiveness of that engine burn, allowing these relatively small and lightweight spacecraft to reach Mars.

Though NASA touts this mission as its own, all it really has done is pay for it. The spacecraft were built by Rocket Lab, they were launched by Blue Origin on New Glenn, and the mission is being operated by the University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory (UC-Berkeley), a perfect example of capitalism in space.

I love capitalism in space! More of it here on Earth wouldn’t hurt, though.

REQUIRED READING FROM SALENA ZITO:

PITTSBURGH-In April 1894, a ragged column of unemployed men attempted to come through Pittsburgh on the way to Washington. They called themselves Coxey's Army. It was a protest march of jobless workers led by Jacob Coxey, an Ohio businessman, and they were marching on the… pic.twitter.com/yMphHdwVjZ

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) October 17, 2026

“When the House swings hard, it’s worth asking what the country is going through; the first place to look is what the Gilded Age voters were telling us then.”

Read the whole thing on Salena’s Substack.

THIS WILL FREE UP ISRAEL FROM AMERICAN BULLYING THE NEXT TIME WE’RE STUPID ENOUGH TO ELECT ANOTHER OBAMA OR BIDEN: Trump Says U.S. Will End $4 Billion in Direct Military Aid to Israel in Favor of a New Agreement. “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken in recent months about moving away from direct U.S. military aid. Democrats’ abandonment of a powerful and loyal ally made congressional authorization of any additional aid packages problematic.”

TREAT YOUR LIPS: Jack Black Intense Therapy Sunscreen Lip Balm. #CommissionEarned

THE NEXT TWO-TO-SIX YEARS WILL BE THE DEMS TRYING TO UNDO THIS:

Trump was elected to do politically difficult but necessary things. Securing the border is ugly. Fighting Iran is costly. Taking on special interests upsets donors. Backing AI scares people. Tonight, Republicans paid the costs. The benefits will be with us for many generations.

— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) November 4, 2026

MICHAEL GOODWIN: How Trump reacts to this shellacking will determine his legacy.

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH UTAH? ‘Republicans should be shot’: Trans student tackles College Republican at University of Utah.

HE MIGHT HAVE TO WEAR THAT THING DOWN TO A NUB:

Trump’s veto pen is now the only thing that stands between us and the complete Californication of America.

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) November 4, 2026

JENNIFER RUST: A South Carolinian Looks at Andrews’ Defeat of Graham in the Senate Race.

DIVERSITY PROBLEM: 97.2% of political donations from Howard University faculty members went to left-wing candidates.

DON’T TAKE THE BLACK PILL:

There is a very interesting mismatch between the elections for *candidates*, which effectively yielded a massive and historic sweep for the Democrats, and the *ballot initiatives*, almost all all of which yielded conservative outcomes, even in the deep blue states (but not VA).

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 4, 2026

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: CrowdStrike launches AI kill switch that it says can stop internal agents that go rogue. “The cybersecurity vendor on Tuesday launched an AI kill switch designed to let security teams stop internal AI agents that go rogue, block them from relaunching and cut off their enterprise network access. The tool is built into CrowdStrike’s Falcon Guardian platform, launched in September to secure AI agents. CrowdStrike also announced an integration with Anthropic’s Claude Cowork.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES:

The Chicago Public Schools budget is larger than the budgets of ten states. Their literacy proficiency rate is below 40% and their math proficiency rate is below 30% by 11th grade.

— Boo (@IzaBooboo) November 3, 2026

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Quit Sniffing Glue. “Congressional Republicans have done nothing to inspire Republican voters, they certainly weren’t going to be winning any undecided, independent, or moderate Dem voters. The John Thune wing of the GOP hasn’t done much of anything to help President Trump with his agenda.”

THAT’S FUNNY… JUST NOT LAUGH-OUT-LOUD FUNNY:

Hello Senator Thune… pic.twitter.com/lPMAETqwcn

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) November 4, 2026

NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER:

My only shred of hope to offer tonight: the left got wiped out this bad in the midterms multiple times and kept marching right through the institutions. So must we.

— Inez Stepman ⚪️🔴⚪️ (@InezFeltscher) November 4, 2026

ADAM COLEMAN: It’s the Economy, Stupid: Why the Midterms Were Predictable. “When you’re glued into politics, reading blogs, scrolling through social media, you get inundated with niche issues and everyone is trying to convince you that this is the defining problem that will swing an election. . . . Right or wrong, the economic woes of the public will always be put at the feet of the president. If the stock market sucks, it’s the president’s fault. If you can’t afford DoorDash like you used to, it’s the president’s fault. The midterms are the way for the American public to punish the president in power. Yes, the typical political discussions matter, like quality of candidates etc. However, if people are angry and emotional, they don’t generally make rational decisions. If the reason for them voting is based on spite, do you really have a chance of changing their minds? You can’t fact your way out of shifting an emotional voter.”

INDEED: Well, That Absolutely F***ing Sucked. “Call it Trump fatigue, inflation fatigue, anti-ICE animus or disapproval of the Iran War, but when every statewide race in Texas flips to the Democrats (as appears likely now), that’s a blue wave.”

THE WEATHER STARTED GETTING ROUGH, THE TINY SHIP WAS TOSSED: Three adults and two children rescued in South Pacific after being adrift for months. They were part of a group of nine who set off on July 30 for what was intended to be a routine one-hour crossing between two South Pacific islands in Micronesia, when they were caught in a storm.

POLAND: Is Donald Tusk Planning to Invoke Martial Law Tonight?

TROUBLING:

The big headline is the GOP collapse but this is also the first big election where AI policy went to a vote and AI lost big https://t.co/S9enienDom

— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) November 4, 2026

LIZ SHELD: Buckle Up, Democrats Sweep Congress, Statehouses.

DAVID STROM: Love or Hate Trump, Candidate Selection Was a Problem – Again.

True. Though Talarico and El-Sayed shouldn’t have been able to win, and wouldn’t have just a few cycles ago. We need to look at the changed background that made that possible.

LIGHTNING DEAL: COOFANDY Men’s Lightweight Flannel Long Sleeve Casual Work Plaid Shirts. #CommissionEarned

IT’S A GRIM DAY FOR THE NATION, BUT THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN. Trump has delivered a lot of results, but a lot of people just can’t stand him. He’s the reverse-Obama, who won on style points while delivering failure.

Well, it’s a democracy, the voters are allowed to choose badly, and I believe that this time they did. Republicans need to pick up some lessons and start working on 2028.

Related: ‘Buckle Up’: We Lost the Battle, but the War for the Future of the American Soul Starts… Right Now.