It Is Bigger Than You Think

Yesterday, I wrote about Trump and his never-ending appeals of his criminal convictions. But it goes deeper than that… before he died, what the judge ruled in that case is BIG if it stands. But the real threat goes far deeper than his personal legal battles, it’s about what his administration is doing to the federal court system

What is it that is so big? The judge ruled that the police and prosecutors need a warrant to search social media!

Social media surveillance case faces uncertainty after judge’s death

Three labor unions say government review of immigrants’ social media feeds violates the First Amendment. A federal judge who wrote “I agree” has died.

The Christian Science Monitor

By Varsha Bansal, Contributor

Oct. 29, 2026

The future of a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s right to surveil immigrants’ social media posts using artificial intelligence was thrown into doubt Wednesday following the sudden death of a federal judge who only weeks ago ruled the case could move forward.

“Plaintiffs’ allegations are of an ongoing surveillance program that is actively chilling the speech of their members and otherwise causing harm. ... I agree,” U.S. District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein wrote on Oct. 1.

In the wake of Judge Hellerstein’s death, a new judge will be “randomly” assigned to his cases, according to the district executive for the Southern District of New York.

The surveillance suit, brought by three of the nation’s major labor unions, argues that the government’s monitoring of millions of visa and green card holders’ online activity is a form of “viewpoint discrimination” that violates the First Amendment. The unions say that’s already resulted in “adverse immigration action” based on the beliefs those immigrants profess.

Like I said, this is important because it limits the government's ability to go looking through “our stuff” without a warrant during witch hunts.

For now, the Trump administration’s surveillance programs will be allowed to continue. That’s because, while Judge Hellerstein allowed the case to proceed, he did not impose an injunction that immediately ordered the Trump administration to stop reviewing immigrants’ social media posts.

And now, the government is on another witch hunt—and this time, it's in homeless shelters. Digital dragnets laugh in the face of "probable cause!" Whether it is the government data-mining a homeless shelter or the feds executing secret warrants to sweep up years of a person's social media data, it smacks of “Big Brother.”

It is just like what happened in the elections. The Trump administration gave the states a list of “illegal voters.” Those lists unraveled under local investigation, with election officials finding massive numbers of clerical errors, jumbled data, and eligible U.S. citizens falsely flagged. If the states had acted on the list, thousands of legal voters would have been affected! GIGO: garbage in, garbage out!

And that is exactly what is going to happen to the homeless shelter data… it will be splashed all over the headlines: “Hundreds of illegal immigrants living right under Mamdani's nose.” But in the end, they will only find one or two, while the other accused individuals will face the nightmare of trying to prove they are U.S. citizens.

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: One Less Set of Footsteps (1973)
On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…

 

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Jim Croce sings that "tomorrow is a dream away." What are you dreaming about today?
How to get up to the cottage before I have to close it for the season. Minor problems just kept popping up. Like a crown coming off or weather problems.

2) He promises that his lover will soon hear one less voice a-talking. Who is the most recent person you spoke to? (Texts, e-mails and IMs don't count.)
The lady at the counter of the farm store where I picked up eggs, milk, and farm fresh chocolate chip cookies!

3) He admits that he and his lover have run out of things to say to one another anyway. Let's turn that around: Is there someone in your life with whom the conversation always flows freely?
My brother.

4) He mentions the jeans hanging upon her door. Do you often wear blue jeans? 
Always! I used to get all dolled up going to the doctors… but that showed my age. Everyone else are in jeans except us old folk!

5) As a high school student, Jim Croce was not especially interested in music. During those years he concentrated on foreign languages, especially German. Say something to us in German.
Guten Morgen

6) His focus changed when he got to college. That's when he joined a choral group that was chosen for a foreign exchange tour of Africa and the Middle East. When did you first travel far from home? Where did you go?
When I was little we drove to every state this side of the Mississippi in July visiting every battleflied and sometime staying at military officer housing and then in August we spent the month at my mother’s cousin cottage on Lake Winnisquam in New Hampshire. The last time I was there was when we bought our boat for the New Hampshire lake cottage that my parents bought in 1975. The cousin we stayed at died many years earlier and her son ran the business.

7) In 1973, when this song was popular, Norman Mailer was atop the best seller lists with his controversial biography of Marilyn Monroe. When you curl up with a book, is it more likely to be fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction.
Off in the stars fiction with space battles ot magic.

8) Home calculators were innovative in 1973. You could choose a large desktop calculator that featured big keys and plugs into the wall, or a hand-held, battery-operated model. Today every cellphone and laptop has a calculator built in, so do you ever still reach for a stand-alone calculator?
No.
But it was 1972 when HP launched the HP-35! I was in engineer school beck then. Do you know how many slide rulers went into the trash? I didn’t buy one, one of the kids in the dorm rented his out. He had a sign-up list on his door. Buck an hour, five dollars to take it to a test.
Yes, he was very shady. He made bugs, you know listening devices, but he was know for “Blue Boxes” where you could call anywhere for free and he sold them big $$$$.
He got busted! Instead of jail time… he made Blue Box detectors and sold them to the phone company. He was always in and out of legal trouble.

c
Probably groceries. Or an audiobook.

---

The oak is always the last to surrender; its brown leaves will hold on through the wildest of blizzards and surrender only when new life starts to bud.

Now that most of the trees have shed their leaves, the state road that I talk about—it's the diagonal line about halfway up—is visible, and you can see the west-facing cliffs. That is typical for around here; the mountains are called the "Hanging Hill," which was made famous by Frederic Edwin Church in his painting West Rock.

There is another artist who painted around here… you might have heard of him if you like the Hudson River School of painting: Nelson Augustus Moore.

He used to live about half a mile away alongside the same brook that runs near my house, which the land trust is buying. I can look out my window and see the same mountain that he saw. When I was little, we used to play along that brook, and back in high school, our science class even panned for galena, a mineral of lead, silver, and sulfur that was mined right there during the Revolutionary War.

---

In the “If it ain’t one thing, it’s another” department:

Yesterday it rained for the first time in fifteen days and it poured! It came down in buckets. It was impressive, but luckily there were no winds, unlike the downburst on the Fourth of July that knocked out power for four days.

A couple of hours later, I heard a drip… drip… drip… The classic sound of a leak.

I found it in the atrium. I also found other water stains on the window sill. Now what?! This is a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, two giant window assemblies. Back in 1990, it cost $3,000 each!

However, since the windows and skylights are over thirty years old, I have already been budgeting for their replacement. This just moved the schedule up. A number of the thermopane windows are also fogging up between the glass.

All these age-related repairs… even the front door lock needs replacing because I have to wiggle the key just to open it. It is all these little things!

Where Is This Case Going?

The judge was set against it. Trump’s lawyers favored it. What? Trump’s 34 fraud convictions—they have been arguing, first, that the case should have been heard in federal court, even though the charges were about falsifying business records in New York, which are state crimes! Second, that he has presidential immunity!

The judge was having none of it! But the judge just died!

Trump's lawyers to argue for his criminal conviction in "hush money" case to be overturned

CBS News

By Graham Kates

November 5, 2026

More than two years after President Trump was convicted of 34 felonies tied to a 2016 "hush money" payment to an adult film star, his lawyers are set to argue their appeal Thursday in New York.

Mr. Trump's attorneys in the case have changed — one former defense attorney, Todd Blanche, is now U.S. attorney general, and another, Emil Bove III, is a federal judge — but his new team of personal lawyers has continued in filings to echo the arguments he made throughout the trial in 2024.

An Oct. 16 filing by Mr. Trump's attorney Robert Giuffra, the powerful co-chair of the white shoe firm Sullivan & Cromwell, began with a line that Mr. Trump himself frequently said and posted on social media: The case, "should have never been brought."

That is total bull! A jury voted unanimously on all charges… Guilty! 

A unanimous jury convicted Mr. Trump in May 2024 for his part in a scheme to falsify business records related to reimbursements made to Michael Cohen, his attorney at the time. Cohen had paid $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels, days before the 2016 election, in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump years earlier. Mr. Trump has denied the allegations.

Folks… these were not campaign expenses! This was hush money that he failed to report! 

"The question here is whether the White House statements and strategy introduced at trial in this criminal case—responding to public allegations of personal wrongdoing bearing directly on the President's integrity and fitness for office—were official," Giuffra wrote.

Come on, folks—it had nothing to do with the White House! It didn’t have anything to do with the campaign! This is how Trump works… keep tangling them up in never-ending court cases!

This is what they are arguing: that a candidate paying off a person to keep quiet is a legitimate campaign expense!

The judge’s body hasn’t even cooled yet and…

Trump’s Attorneys Criticize New York Judge One Day After His Death

Newsweek

By Taryn Pedler

Oct 30, 2026

President Donald Trump's attorneys have launched a fresh attack on the federal judge who oversaw a case involving the president's New York criminal conviction, criticizing his handling of the ongoing legal proceedings in a court filing submitted one day after the judge's death.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein died of natural causes on Wednesday morning, aged 92. On Thursday, a 43-page court filing that Trump's legal team submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit took aim at Hellerstein's previous decisions in the case.

The filing did not mention Hellerstein's death but accused him and the New York County District Attorney's Office (DANY) of repeatedly finding "meritless reasons" to prevent Trump from moving his criminal case from state to federal jurisdiction following the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity.

This is a state case! He committed fraud on business records!

So now what?

Trump's legal team is asking the Second Circuit to reverse Hellerstein's order denying permission to remove the case from state court.

The filing's conclusion asks the appeals court to remand the matter with instructions to grant Trump leave to remove the case and adopt the state trial court's judgment.

[…]

The judge's cases are expected ​to be randomly assigned to other judges in the Manhattan court.

It is supposed to be random… we will see. Will it be a "Trump" judge that he appointed?

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of Trump’s never-ending legal saga!

The Nutmeg State.

The Nutmeg State. The Blue Wave hit Connecticut. I have written about the national elections but not Connecticut. I am saddened by one loss, and very disappointed one didn’t lose.

Blue wave crashes over CT General Assembly
Minority Leader Stephen Harding, a Brookfield Republican, says he believes he lost
CT Mirror
by Mark Pazniokas
November 4, 2026

Republicans lost as many as eight of their 11 seats in the Connecticut Senate and at least nine in the House, with some races still to be determined early Wednesday morning, leaving the GOP with its smallest-ever presence in the upper chamber.

Democrats projected majorities as large as 33-3 in the Senate and at least 111-40 in the House, with House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, saying if other close races fall their way, the House Democratic advantage could be as much as 116-35.

In the Senate, only three of the Senate’s 11 Republicans were clear victors: Sen. Eric Berthel of Watertown, Sen. Henri Martin of Bristol and Sen. Rob Sampson of Wolcott. Democrats currently have a 25-11 majority. Incomplete results showed Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, trailing his Democratic challenger Aaron Zimmer with 71% of the votes counted

Sadly, my state rep. didn’t lose. She is a staunch Republican, totally anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ. I only contacted her once and once was enough. I got the distinct impression that she didn’t want to represent all her constituents… just the straight ones.

Sen. Rob Sampson of Wolcott didn’t lose either, and he has introduced many anti-trans bills and amendments. These included one to ban trans women in sports, and another stripping us of our health insurance!

The Republican that I wished got reelected… Sen. Kissel. The CT Mirror reported;

Democrats said they also unseated three other incumbents: Sen. John Kissel of Enfield, a state senator for 34 years, lost to David Kiner in the 7th District; Sen. Heather Somers of Groton lost to Joe de la Cruz in the 18th; and Sen. Jeff Gordon of Woodstock lost to Ethan Werstler in the 35th.

Why a Republican? Because he was an old-fashioned Republican… voted for the people, not the party. Back in 2011, when the trans non-discrimination bill passed, he looked up at us and gave a thumbs up! He was a “straight shooter.” When we (as in those who lobbied for us) talked to him, he said he was for it, but the party… no.

This photo was taken in the Capitol stairway. We were just coming down from the Senate gallery after the vote. In the photo: Sen. Beth Bye, me (CTAC), Sal Tarmarkin (CT Equality), Jennifer Levi (GLAD), Betty Gallo (Gallo & Robinson, lobbyist), and Gretchen Raffa (Planned Parenthood). Missing is Jerimarie Liesegang (CTAC), who was being interviewed.

Famous Words They Wish They Never Uttered

Trump’s… “Pretend I’m on the ballot!”

People did!

 

Read What He Said

Read what this legislator said. It's really amazing what he admitted to in his anger.

Texas state rep calls on Abbott to curb Hinojosa’s power before inauguration

The Hill

by Ryan Mancini

11/04/26

Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison (R) on Wednesday called on Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to curb Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa’s (D) power before she is sworn in next year.

“We still have total power in Texas, and we must act like it by using the remaining ten weeks to restore separation of powers and limit the emergency powers that Governor-Elect Hinojosa is set to inherit, which would allow her to destroy liberty in Texas by executive fiat,” Harrison wrote in a lengthy post on the social platform X.

Hold it right there! “We still have total power in Texas!" Total power?

Harrison wrote that Hinojosa should not have “unchecked emergency powers” and that “the urgency is undeniable… and inaction is intolerable.” He claimed that Hinojosa will “inherit the powers of a DICTATOR.”

“Due to the absurd (and almost certainly unconstitutional) Texas emergency powers laws, Gov. Hinojosa will literally have the power to modify laws, ignore laws, or create and enforce laws – including criminal laws – on a whim!” Harrison said.

So, are you saying that right now you have the powers of a dictator?

Hinojosa will likely enter her new role with more powers than anticipated on the campaign trail, The Houston Chronicle reported. She could also face roadblocks, as Texas Republicans have vowed to “hold the line” against the state Democrat’s agenda.

So, the people chose Governor-elect Hinojosa, and the Republicans are pissed. Now they want to ignore the will of the people and hamstring the governor.

The strong night for Democrats in Texas did not apply solely to Hinojosa and Sen.-elect James Talarico (D-Texas), as Democratic state Rep. Vikki Goodwin defeated Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), and Democrats won the races for state attorney general, comptroller, railroad commissioner and agriculture commissioner.

Democrats also won the Texas state House, concluding the 24-year run Republicans held in both state Legislature chambers.

Yup! The Republicans are doing everything they can to sabotage the will of the voters!

Democrats seize power in Texas, ending decades of GOP dominance

Texas’ governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and every other statewide candidate fell, upending the state’s political power structure in one night.

Texan Triburne

By Eleanor Klibanoff

Nov. 4, 2026

Everything has changed.

A blue tsunami of epic proportions swept through Texas Tuesday night, decimating the largest, most influential red state and ending the longest statewide shutout of any political party in the country. Democrats up and down the ticket, buoyed by national anger toward President Donald Trump, won seats they haven’t been viable contenders for in decades despite historic spending from their opponents.

Gov. Greg Abbott, the most powerful and well-resourced governor in modern Texas history, was unseated by Gina Hinojosa. Attorney General Ken Paxton, who in past elections cast off impeachment, indictment and infidelities, fell to James Talarico in his bid for the U.S. Senate. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the iron-fisted ruler of the Texas Senate, went down to a little known state representative. Republicans lost the attorney general’s office, one of the most influential conservative legal positions in the country. The new congressional map Republicans drew yielded them no gains — in fact, they lost one seat overall.

Even with all their cheating and gerrymandering, they lost! And now they want to cripple the Democrats.

First, both sides will have to emerge from what seems to be a collective shell shock gripping the governing class of the Lone Star State.

In true Texan style they circle the wagons!

“No one ever thought he would be even close to losing. No one thought it. No one talked about it,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a GOP consultant. “He was a rock solid candidate and that tells me this is about something bigger than the candidates we put up or the races they ran.”

So, what does that tell me? After 30 years of Republican control, they now want to subvert the will of the people!

Texas Republicans should hope that this election was decided by a lot of Republicans choosing to stay home, or even cross party lines, in rejection of Trump, Steinhauser said. The only other alternative would be that the state suddenly found a whole lot more Democratic voters, which would make these victories more durable in the future.

No! After 30 years, the people finally woke up!

Like a wounded animal turning on itself, the Texas Republican Party is now looking for someone to blame. In the process, they're devouring their own.

One guy, at least, believes the Texas GOP’s loyalty to Trump is not to blame for Tuesday’s results. In fact, he’s blaming Texas Republicans for not being MAGA enough.

“If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost,” Trump posted on social media Tuesday night. “He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!”

Sen. Bryan Hughes, you just keep thinking that! Go on and attack your fellow Republicans! You have your blinders on, and that's exactly why they lost. They tried to appease the far right and failed to see that voters were fed up with MAGA, woke politics, ICE, and, most of all... Trump!

And now they're trying to sabotage the duly elected governor!

A Has Been? A Flash In The Pan?

The $64,000 question is will they change their ways? Will Republicans in Congress stand up to Trump. Has his gold leaf started to peel?

Trump-backed Republicans lose dozens of US midterm races, raising questions over his influence

Guardian analysis shows how tumbling approval ratings may have hurt candidates backed by US president

The Guardian

Ariana Baio in Washington

Thu 5 Nov 2026 

Dozens of Republican candidates directly endorsed by Donald Trump lost their US midterm election races, according to analysis by the Guardian, raising questions over the power of the president’s support.

In past elections, Trump’s endorsements have been coveted. In the final stages of this year’s campaign, he actively urged voters to act as though he were on the ballot.

But just half of the 26 candidates Trump endorsed for the US Senate had won their elections as of Wednesday at 5pm ET, according to a Guardian tally.

Of the 23 candidates for state governor endorsed by Trump, only nine had won their elections. Twelve were defeated, with two races still to be called.

Has Trump endorsements turned to a Jonah?

The US president’s base has been loyal to his choices. In 2022, approximately 82% of candidates endorsed by Trump went on to win their race, according to the New York Times.

While some races still have yet to be called, his endorsement appears to have had a weaker impact on candidates’ prospects in this year’s midterms. The US president’s handpicked candidates running in closely watched races failed to resonate with conservative voters, even in deeply red states.

Is Trump's endorsements become the "Touch of Death?"

The US president’s gubernatorial endorsements performed the worst of the three categories. Democrats flipped five governor seats including in Texas, which hasn’t seen a Democratic governor in more than 30 years, and in Iowa, which hasn’t had a Democrat running the state since the mid-2000s.

His Golden Touch turns out to be "Fools Gold"

Can You Imagine?

If they passed a constitutional amendment banning race from sports... people would be screaming discrimination! But because we're trans they think it is okay to discriminate against us.

You ask these voters how many trans athletes there are and they have no idea!

Ballot measures banning trans student-athletes pass in Nebraska and Arizona

Restrictions on trans student-athletes were put to voters in Nebraska, Arizona, Colorado and Washington.

19^th News

Brooke Migdon

Nov 4, 2026

Nebraska and Arizona have passed ballot measures to ban transgender student-athletes from playing on girls’ sports teams, marking a significant referendum on trans rights. As of Wednesday morning, similar ballot measures in Colorado and Washington are still undecided, although early projections suggest that the measures will pass in both states.

[...]

Supporters of the ballot initiative have argued that enshrining the 2025 law in the state’s constitution would help prevent the legislature from repealing the law in future sessions. “One of the things we always worry about when we pass a law is that it can be unpassed,” Republican Rep. Kathleen Kauth, the law’s original sponsor, told Nebraska Public Media in March. The initiative was sponsored by the conservative advocacy group Fairness for Girls. 

These are our "Jim Crow" laws written into the state Constitution! Enshrined discrimination!

Colorado’s ballot measure would similarly designate sports teams from kindergarten through college as strictly male or female based on students’ “biological reproductive systems.” It qualified for the general election after Protect Kids Colorado, the conservative organization behind it, collected more than 168,000 signatures from across the state.

Prey tell... just how are they going to tell? Suppose a girl comes in from Connecticut or another state that allows birth certificates to be changed. How are these going to tell the difference? Hun? Have everyone submit to chromosomes tests? How many girls will have to submit to the indignation of a chromosomes tests?

This blows Republican minds! It doesn't fit in to their little "Father Knows Best" world. Our human rights are being whittled away!

A Dirty Old Man!

[Editorial]

Or the Emperor Has No Clothes!

The glitter has come off and what the people see is a tired old man. But it is not just the U.S. — the world is seeing that too!

From Kyiv to Moscow, and Tehran to Tel Aviv, all eyes were on the Democrats' big win as foreign powers weigh how a flipped Congress will affect international relations.

The world is reacting to the Democrats' sweeping midterm elections victory

NPR | By Kate Bartlett

November 4, 2026

One color dominates international headlines about the U.S. midterm election results. French newspaper Libération called the Democrats' win "une vague bleue," or blue wave, Britain's Daily Mail dubbed it a "historic blue tsunami," and The Times of India's headline ran "midterm blues for Trump."

Countries at war were also watching closely, with Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent's online headline hopeful: "Democrats seize control of Congress in blow to Trump, potential boost for Ukraine."

Russia had a different take. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the state-run daily newspaper, suggested the results would in fact be a blow to Ukraine, which has firm support from the European Union. "Brussels, brace yourself. After the Republicans' defeat, Trump's wrath will fall on Europe," read the headline.

Russia is right about one thing… Trump's wrath. Where will it fall? Who will he blame for his defeat? Because it was his defeat, he can’t wiggle out of it this time by blaming others.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has an acrimonious relationship with Trump, was forthright in his response.

"Yesterday, American society voted against policies that only impoverish. Against hate. Against machismo. Against climate denialism and against the privileges of the elites," Sánchez wrote on social media.

He then alluded to the recent election in Brazil, where the left-wing incumbent president defeated a Trump ally, as well as upcoming Spanish elections later this month. "It happened in Brazil. It just happened in the U.S. And it will happen soon in Spain," he wrote.

The elephant in the room is no longer hidden… it has been exposed!

CBS News reported that;

South Africa

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. election results would "introduce a new era in world relations."

"We have seen that the Democrats have taken control of the Senate and of the House, and the people of America have spoken," he said. 

The Trump administration has had tense relations with South Africa, sanctioning officials it accuses of allowing the persecution of the country's White Afrikaner population and inviting its members to apply for refugee status in the U.S. — an opening that some 17,000 have sought to take advantage of.

[…]

France

French Economy Minister Roland Lescure declined on Wednesday, during an interview with the BFM television network, to predict whether President Trump would "accept" the rebuke by American voters or stick to the policies widely perceived as having precipitated the midterm Republican defeat.

[…]

Norway

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere on Wednesday called the U.S. election results "a powerful political signal about a change of course among American voters."

"Voices are now emerging in American politics that are closer to us than the president and the administration have stood for, for example on climate and environment, and in foreign policy and development aid policy."

Trump on the world stage just got the hook! They see him as a weakened old man and are emboldened by it!

One of the results is that now Iran knows that they won the war... it only remains the terms of ending the war.

A bell has rung… and now we need to wait and see how everything settles down. Right now, the world is like a giant game of Pick-Up Sticks, and we have to watch as foreign leaders remove sticks from a jumbled pile, one by one, without disturbing any of the other pieces.

[/Editorial]

P.S. Now that the Democrats control Congress… Trump should be worried that they will release the Epstein files.