Flier courtesy of Indivisible ADK/Saratoga
Tomorrow is the Big Day, the culmination of the most important Midterm election in American history. It’s hard to overstate just how crucial it is that Democrats and Democrat-aligned candidates carry the day in races across the Country tomorrow. If Republicans maintain control of the House and Senate, it’s not hyperbolic to wonder if there will even be another election in our future. Think of all of the mayhem, cruelty, corruption and authoritarianism we’ve endured in the past two years and turn it up another 10 notches to imagine what could come if Trumpism gets another two years to entrench itself in the federal government unchecked. Evisceration of what’s left of the social safety net. Expansion of the ICE secret police and government surveillance on our streets. Persecution, prosecution and incarceration of the right’s political opponents, elected, journalistic and activist alike. Perversion of American foreign policy into alignment with Russia and against our traditional allies, with an invasion of Greenland and Canada thrown in for good measure. Pillaging of our tax money and natural resources to line the pockets of billionaires and build data centers so AI can steal our jobs and our creativity. Donald Trump’s orange face on our money and in all public spaces in testament to his permanent presidency. Seriously, it’s all on the table, along with so many other horrors we cannot yet imagine, all borne of the deranged minds of Trump, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk and the acquiescent cultists who enable them all.
But, if the polls and the vibes are to be believed, it seems as if the American people are understanding the stakes. Early voting statistics have been historic; in response to the Supreme Court’s Callais decision, Black voters across the South are voting in droves, especially young Black voters, and, as of this writing, nearly 55 million Americans have already cast their votes, including more than 1.8 million New Yorkers. As we speak, the Vice-President of the United States is traveling to Rome — the biggest City in NY-21 — in a last-ditch effort to prop up the floundering candidacy of Republican Anthony Constantino in a race that Democrats should have no business competing in; Trump carried NY-21 by 20+ points in 2024, but JD Vance may find more more protestors than supporters in Oneida County this time around. Meanwhile, the final NY Times/Siena polls show a discernible Blue surge in seven key Senate races, and Real Clear Politics is projecting a Fetterman-proof 53-47 Democratic majority in the Senate, with Dems flipping seats in North Carolina, Kansas, Ohio, Texas, Alaska and Maine, and with Iowa, Florida, Nebraska and South Carolina still in play. In the House, 270toWin has Democrats with a healthy 24-seat majority and the potential to take another 19 seats on top of that, and NPR calls Democratic control of the House “all but certain.” And finally, Republican desperation in the face of the tangible national mood against them is at once ludicrous and ominous, whether it be the precious pearl clutching over the double Dan Sullivan “scandal” in Alaska, the Trumpian personal smears or the rank intimidation tactics being perpetrated by the corrupted and bumbling Department of Justice. But the intimidation tactics won’t work, a veritable army of volunteers stands at the ready to activate in the event that federal agents show up at the polls.
So, our mood going into tomorrow is consciously optimistic, although we admit that our usual electoral-season fear of disappointment is bordering on abject terror given the stakes. Nonetheless, we’ll be glued to television and computer screens tomorrow night, keeping track of poll closures with our trusty Bolts 2026 General Election Worksheet in hand and hoping for a long but celebratory night. Because, if we get to celebrate Tuesday night, we also understand that it is back to work on Wednesday, whether it be taking to the streets in defense of the election results or turning up the pressure on newly elected Democrats to do everything in their power to stymie, impede and hold people accountable in the final two years of the Trump Regime. On the former point, in the event of election interference or sabotage, the No Kings movement will gather in a national call on Wednesday night to share real-time updates, align on the election defense strategy and articulate the next steps for attendees to take in defense of democracy.
The Week in Flock
Flock CEO Garrett Langley has us in an existential crisis after he told an assemblage of cops that anti-Flock protestors are “not real.”
What is most certainly real, however, is law enforcement abuse of Flock surveillance technology. The nonprofit, public-interest law firm Institute for Justice has compiled a database of more than 200 incidents of ALPR abuse, including the case of Albany County Sheriff’s Investigator Laurie Moore, who used Capital Region cameras more than 4,000 times to track her ex-girlfriend and others.
The Altamont Enterprise published a thoughtful Letter to the Editor calling on the Guilderland Town Board to “to seek broader citizen input and more fully explore the civil liberty and privacy issues linked to use of surveillance cameras” in that Town.
More than 30 days have passed since Dutchess County officials did the right thing and decided to get the Flock out. Guess what? More than 20 of the cameras remain in place as Flock drags it’s feet.
On the evening of Wednesday, November 18, the East Greenbush Town Board will be voting on possibly ending the Town’s contract with Flock surveillance. The meeting is open to the public. Visit DeFlock Greenbush for more information.
Oh Albany
To the surprise of no one, Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs vetoed the Albany Common Council’s absurd resolution calling for the enactment of a commuter tax on the nonresident Albany working class.
Former Common Councillor Judy Doesschate has a piece in the Times Union which is highly critical of the City’s borrowing practices.
Albany Data Stories offers its own take on Albany’s “massive” and “staggering” debt. In a separate post, Albany Data Stories writes that Mayor Applyrs’s 2027 budget “includes highly speculative revenue plans and . . . has a high likelihood — around 95% — of failing to meet an objective of stabilizing [Albany’s] finances.” Not good.
Meanwhile, Albany County boss Dan McCoy has put up his cousin, retired Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch, as the next Albany County Public Defender. Kudos to the Times Union for pointing out how Lynch’s vast family tree will create conflict of interest problems throughout the County’s criminal justice system.
Akum Norder is critical of McCoy’s plan to level a bunch of existing houses on the former College of St. Rose campus.
In a screen grab from cell phone video, an ICE agent holds a gun in the face of a Los Angeles dog walker who was observing an ICE abduction.
Odds & Ends
In just the latest episode showing ICE to be an out-of-control and lawless secret police force, a harrowing viral video shows armed agents confronting a dog walker who was merely observing a violent abduction in suburban Los Angeles. If Democrats take the Senate and the House tomorrow, they will have a long list of things to do come January, but reigning in DHS and ICE needs to at the top of the list.
To that end, Senators Adam Schiff and Ron Wyden are accusing the Trump administration of hiding a report that “details serious abuses of Americans’ rights under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.”
Meanwhile, a massive data leak has exposed the personal information of more than 41,000 DHS workers, including undercover ICE agents. Pity.
CoreCivic, the private prison contractor, donated $500,000 to the Trump/Vance Inaugural Committee and CoreCivic’s CEO has donated extensively to Trump aligned super PACS. CoreCivic sure seems to be getting an excellent return on its investments. In 2025, the company offered to sell its vacant prison in Appleton, Minnesota to the State of Minnesota for $75 million. The administration of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz declined and, only a year later, CoreCivic sold the facility to ICE for $495 million, an inexplicable price increase of $420 million. Oh, and CoreCivic also receives about $75 million per year from ICE to staff and maintain the Appleton facility. See how this works? The rich and their corporations give Trump favors and, in return, the federal government shovels truckloads of our tax dollars back to the very same corporate interests in furtherance of the Regime’s despicable immigration policies. And you can probably guess how CoreCivic is turning around and spending their generous windfall; 93% of CoreCivic’s campaign donations are lining the pockets of Republicans, particularly Senate candidates Ashley Hinson, Mike Rogers, John Husted and Michael Whatley. It’s a perfect circle of graft and corruption.
We’re encouraging folks to vote for Kathy Hochul. But we’re only doing it because the alternative to Governor Hochul is apocalyptic and unacceptable. A vote for Bruce Blakeman would be a vote for obedience to Trump, State partnership with ICE, devastating Medicaid cuts and the proliferation of data centers. So voting for Kathy is a no brainer. But, Governor Hochul should also recognize that she is one of the Democrats who is going to feel activist pressure in her next term. Exhibit No. 1 is Responsible Data Center Development Act, which Hochul still has not signed amid news that lobbyists spent $64.5 million this past July and August, with much of that cash directed at anti-RDCDA lobbying.
And one other thing about the double Dan Sullivans in Alaska, a topic which has been the subject of much gnashing of teeth over the past week, as well as threats of prosecution from Trump. Almost none of the breathless and scolding national reporting over this vote-stacking “scandal” is even mentioning the fact that, because Alaska has ranked-choice voting, the presence of multiple Dan Sullivans on the Senate ballot is of virtually no consequence. Simply put, if an Alaska voter is truly confused about which Dan Sullivan to vote for, they can just rank them both and not rank any other candidate. Easy peasy. In any event, on Sunday, a federal judge dismissed the DOJ lawsuit against the State of Alaska which sought to invalidate any election which incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan failed to win.
Haley Stevens, once upon a time…
Finally, Democratic Michigan House Representative Haley Stevens has, to put it nicely, revealed herself to be a duplicitous ratfucker with no apparent commitment to any value aside from her own narcissistic self-aggrandizement. Her Sunday morning endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race is nothing short of a last-minute betrayal and a heel turn worthy of the WWE. And her fiancé is even worse. Remember, Stevens was famously supported by Chuck Schumer and the centrist wing of the Democratic Party in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary, and now she’s using Black Michiganders as a prop and backing the Trumpian Rogers, all while making Andrew Cuomo look like a gracious loser. We hope that the future Fox News appearances are worth it for Stevens because, by Sunday evening, she was being praised by Trump himself while her staff were quitting in droves and a movement was taking hold among her Congressional colleagues to expel her from the Democratic caucus. And that was all before she gave an unhinged interview to Anderson Cooper. Haley Stevens seems to have done the impossible, delivering a unifying rallying point that brings all parts of the Democratic Party together; Vote Abdul, Michiganders.