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Before anything else, I need to acknowledge the grief that fell over D.C. this week: a National Guard member killed, another fighting for his life [ [link removed] ]. A moment that should have been unthinkable, yet feels tragically at home in the climate we’re in. A reminder that nothing about this moment is theoretical. It touches real lives.
Here are five things you shouldn’t miss, and why they matter.
1. ICE Wants a Police State. Big-City Chiefs Aren’t Taking the Bait.
Texas politicians may be out here saluting ICE like it’s the state religion, but big-city police chiefs are having a very different conversation:
"Do we partner with ICE… or maintain trust with the communities we actually police?"
Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux took one look at ICE’s sales pitch: $25 million in ‘reimbursements’ (translation: strings), federal oversight, slower response times, and an instant collapse in community trust, and responded with the professional equivalent of: lol, absolutely not. His logic was painfully simple: Pulling cops off violent crime to help ICE hit its numbers does not make Dallas safer.
Meanwhile, in Houston, Mayor John Whitmire is under fire after a 1,000% spike in police calls to ICE from routine traffic stops, including a domestic violence victim who ended up in ICE custody after calling 911.
Cities are stuck between ICE’s cash and Trump’s threats: Say yes and lose your community. Say no, and get National Guard troops in your streets. ICE isn’t waiting. They’ve stuffed the national crime database with hundreds of thousands of civil immigration warrants, not signed by judges, turning a broken taillight into a deportation pipeline.
And now, after the horrific attack on two National Guard members in D.C., Trump’s response isn’t reflection, it’s escalation. He wants to flood the capital with even more troops [ [link removed] ], as if more military uniforms on city streets will fix the underlying crisis. It won’t. If anything, it risks pouring gasoline on it. (Stay tuned for my deep dive on this coming next week.)
DHS calls this “partnership.” Most police chiefs call it what it is: federal overreach masquerading as public safety.
👮 [ [link removed] ] ICE vs. Police Chiefs: NBC [ [link removed] ]
2. The White House Steps In for an Accused Sex Trafficker (No, Not That One)
You know things are off the rails when the White House is personally chasing down seized iPhones for Andrew Tate [ [link removed] ], a self-proclaimed misogynist facing trafficking allegations in three countries, because he’s a loyal MAGA influencer.
When federal agents seized the Tates’ devices after their private jet landed, a White House official, who used to be their lawyer, contacted DHS and essentially said: "Return the devices. This request comes from the White House."
Law enforcement veterans called it:
"Intimidation."
"A severe departure from any norm."
"Cronyism that undermines the rule of law."
It fits the pattern: Trump intervening for allies while targeting critics, treating the justice system like an in-house loyalty program. This time, the VIP just happens to be an accused trafficker with an army of radicalized young followers.
👀 White House→Tate Assist: ProPublica [ [link removed] ]
And if you think that’s where the loyalty perks end, the program has a platinum tier…
3. Trump’s War on Drugs: Bomb the Boats, Free the Narco-President
Donald Trump just announced he’ll pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, a man a unanimous U.S. jury convicted of building a cocaine superhighway to the United States.
Yes, the same Trump who branded cartels "terrorists," launched deadly boat strikes across the Caribbean and Pacific, and claims he’s waging a noble "war on drugs," is now freeing the guy the Department of Justice said accepted millions in cartel bribes to protect cocaine shipments heading straight here.
You truly cannot script authoritarian foreign policy any better.
Hernández, once Trump’s favorite "close partner," (I was there when Stephen Miller and Trump used to laud him with praises during meetings in Trump 1.0) was sentenced to 45 years after prosecutors showed he enabled traffickers while publicly pretending to fight them.
Trump’s justification? He said Hernández was "treated very harshly and unfairly."
(Unlike, apparently, the fishermen being blown up at sea by his boat-strike campaign.)
This pardon announcement came as the Trump administration is escalating military strikes across the region and insisting they’re necessary to "stop drugs." Apparently it’s only a crime when non-allies do it.
This isn’t inconsistency. It’s the foreign-policy version of the loyalty test. Punish your enemies. Protect your friends. Principles optional.
🚢🇭🇳 Bombing Boats, Freeing Kingpins: The Guardian [ [link removed] ]
4. The Supreme Court Is About to Reshape the Next Three Elections
While the rest of us were buying pie, the Supreme Court was teeing up decisions that could reshape who gets real political power for the next decade.
Here’s the simple version:
Texas drew a new congressional map designed to give Republicans five extra seats. A lower court said it was unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. Justice Alito stepped in and put the map back on life support.
The Supreme Court will decide any day now whether that map stands. And if it does, other states will follow, because this ruling becomes the blueprint.
But the bigger decision comes next summer with Louisiana v. Callais, a case that could effectively gut Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act [ [link removed] ], and wipe out more than a dozen minority-majority districts across the South.
Why does this matter to you?
Because these rulings determine who gets to choose their leaders, and who gets boxed out before voting even begins. They decide whether your vote has power, or whether maps are drawn so the outcome is already decided.
Texas is just the start. Louisiana is the real earthquake. Together, they’ll shape the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections long before any of us step into a voting booth.
⚖️ SCOTUS Redistricting Showdown: Axios [ [link removed] ]
If you’re sipping your coffee, tea, or mimosa of choice right now, please do me a favor and put it down. I don’t want you choking or baptizing your couch with it when you read this next one…
5. Meet Grokipedia: Where Hitler Gets a Makeover
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia, literally referred to Hitler as “The Führer.” Not once. Not by accident. And not as a historical footnote. It took 13,000 words before it even mentions the Holocaust. This is the latest masterpiece from Musk’s “propaganda-free” Artificial Intelligence (AI) encyclopedia, the one he created to cleanse Wikipedia of its “woke mind virus.” Except instead of facts, it’s pumping out:
White-supremacist citations (42 Stormfront references… completely normal!)
Far-right talking points repackaged as “media bias”
Holocaust minimization
Sandy Hook conspiracy language [ [link removed] ]
And whole sections dedicated to undermining democratic institutions designed to prevent another Hitler
It’s not even sophisticated. It’s lazy, low-budget extremism with a shiny interface, a propaganda machine powered by GPUs instead of goose-stepping interns.
The danger? It looks like Wikipedia. It reads like Wikipedia. But it exists to launder ideology, to build a parallel, AI-generated “truth” for people already red-pilled by Musk’s social media feed. Because why slowly rewrite textbooks when you can just mass-produce revisionist history?
🤯 Musk’s AI Encyclopedia Gave Hitler a Makeover: The Intercept [ [link removed] ]
💛 One Thing for Your Soul
Six months after Marilyn Cudmore lost her husband, Steve, a bouquet of daffodils arrived, a birthday gift he arranged before he died. His final “Hello, beautiful.” That small act became a spark. Marilyn planted a few daffodil bulbs in his memory. Then a few hundred. Friends joined her, and soon the “Spade Maids” were lining the entire road in East Sooke, British Columbia, with daffodils. Every spring, the blooms stretch farther, a quiet river of yellow carrying hope to everyone who passes by.
🌼 A Blooming Goodbye: Good News Network [ [link removed] ]
Reading about Marilyn and her friends brought to mind a note a subscriber, Celia, sent me recently: "I have this little quote from Desmond Tutu that I often share:"
"Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."
Perfect words for this moment.
To those around the world who sent thoughtful Thanksgiving notes this week, thank you. I felt every word.
–Olivia
PS: I’m running a Thanksgiving discount for new paid subscribers through Cyber Monday. If you’ve been thinking about joining, this is a great moment. Your support keeps this work independent, fearless, and outside the reach of anyone who’d prefer I stop writing it. Subscribe here [ [link removed] ].

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