Saturday Covfefe: FAA Grounds Flights. Who’s Running This Show?

Greetings, friends!

First, to our veterans and military families: thank you for your service, the time apart, and the sacrifices so many never see. You deserve gratitude and support that lasts long after Veterans Day.

On Friday, flights were grounded nationwide. At the press conference, the praise for Trump took off just fine. I’m still processing the sheer ineptitude on display. Stranded travelers deserved answers. They got a presidential tribute.

Looking forward to the after-action report. Preferably one that investigates the failure instead of congratulating the leadership. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg would like a word. Possibly several that require asterisks…

Grab your coffee. ☕️ We have a few things to discuss.

1. Measles Wins, America Loses

This just in: America has reportedly lost its measles-elimination status, a public health achievement we held for 26 years. The announcement is expected Tuesday. That’s one way to take the country backward.

Elimination meant sustained transmission had stopped. Now, evidence shows transmission chains lasting more than 12 months. More than 5,400 cases have been reported this year, double last year’s total. Deaths reported Friday in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania brought this year’s toll to at least 10.

Ten people. From a disease we know how to prevent.

The resurgence began in West Texas in January 2025, followed by sustained outbreaks in Utah, Arizona and elsewhere. Communities with low vaccination rates have been hit hard.

I watched public health become a political battlefield inside the White House in 2020. Seeing children pay the price again is devastating. Where is the urgency? Our children shouldn’t have to wait for Washington to find it.

🦠 U.S. Loses Measles-Elimination Status (WaPo)⁠

2. DHS Denies Detaining Americans: 500+ Would Like a Word

Stephen Miller is now White House chief of staff. Before anyone predicts a gentler 2027, let’s look at what this crackdown has already done.

More than 500 U.S. citizens have been detained since Trump returned to office. DHS insists citizens are immediately released once their citizenship is established. "Immediately" apparently includes three days for George Retes, an Iraq War Army veteran detained after driving into a raid at his workplace. He missed his daughter’s third birthday. DHS accused him of assaulting agents. He was never charged.

Construction worker Leonardo Garcia Venegas was detained three separate times, despite telling agents he was a citizen and showing ID.

Three times. How many citizenship checks does one American need to pass?

As a Mexican American from El Paso and former homeland security advisor, I find this infuriating. But I also see the people who refused to accept it and showed up at the ballot box to demand better. That matters.

A department charged with keeping us safe has been harming families and making people afraid to turn to law enforcement. Latino, Haitian, Somali, Venezuelan…community after community has felt that fear. Our skin color, our accents, our languages and our jobs cannot tell you our citizenship.

A federal judge has twice intervened. The Supreme Court paused the first order, with Justice Kavanaugh defending ethnicity as one factor. This October, the judge found agents were detaining people solely because they appeared Latino or Latino and working class, and issued a new injunction covering seven Southern California counties. DHS denies racial profiling and has appealed.

Everyone deserves humane treatment, regardless of immigration status. With Miller now wielding more power, congressional oversight is even more urgent, not optional.

🇺🇸 More Than Numbers (ProPublica)

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3. From Trump’s Pardons to the Intelligence Community

Apparently, helping Trump hand out pardons is now a steppingstone to overseeing the legal boundaries of intelligence. Trump has nominated Gary Lawkowski, a campaign lawyer and White House pardon adviser, as general counsel at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). His national security experience is unclear. His loyalty credentials? Easier to find.

He represented Trump in January 6 litigation and filed a complaint claiming the Washington Post’s ads were a contribution to Kamala Harris. Experts called it baseless. He also helped run the pardon process, and one recipient, former Tennessee state senator Brian Kelsey, had been his client. Did he recuse? He didn’t answer.

Having worked at ODNI, I can tell you why this matters. Its general counsel helps set the legal limits of intelligence work, including surveillance, decisions that touch Americans’ privacy and civil liberties. This is a job where the ability to tell the president “no” matters.

His predecessor, Jack Dever, was an Army Korean linguist, FBI lawyer, and counterterrorism prosecutor–quite the contrast. Lawkowski needs Senate confirmation. With Democrats taking control in January, watch whether Republicans rush him through first.

“He’s been helpful to Donald Trump” is not a national security qualification.

🕵️ Trump’s Pardon Adviser Picked for ODNI (The Intercept)

4. Dead Voters? Check Again…

In Georgia, four citizens were supposedly voting from beyond the grave. One small problem: all four were alive.

Members of Georgia’s State Election Board and its staff coordinated with the Election Integrity Network, led by Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer who helped Trump try to overturn his 2020 defeat. Remember her? Losing that fight didn’t end the project.

One shared priority: ELLY, software that flags "suspicious" voter registrations by scraping voter files, obituaries and property websites, without the personal identifiers needed to tell people apart. What could possibly go wrong?

After the midterms, a Forsyth County election board member in Mitchell’s network used ELLY to challenge more than 60 ballots. Four "dead" voters. All alive. The county board rejected the challenges. Before the election, state investigators had pressured Chatham County to remove more than 200 voters the tool flagged.

Even the board’s Republican chair, John Fervier, says the network’s "undue influence" needs to stop. Democrats won statewide offices and the state House, and Governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms has pledged independent election oversight. Winning doesn’t finish the work. It puts people in office who must do it.

Before anyone announces a zombie-voter scandal, perhaps check whether the voters have a pulse.

🗳️ Georgia’s Election Board and Cleta Mitchell’s Network (ProPublica)

5. Trump Pulls Vance From Iran Talks to Target Democrats

Even JD Vance blamed the Iran war for Republicans’ midterm wipeout. Trump admitted it hurt, too. The course correction? Pulling Vance off negotiations to investigate alleged corruption in Democratic-run cities and states. Slow…clap.

“We don’t need a deal with Iran,” Trump wrote.

Vance had offered to lead renewed talks through Qatari mediators. Trump shut it down. Meanwhile, skirmishes, a naval blockade and the fight over the Strait of Hormuz continue. We deserve a clear, public explanation of how this war ends.

Instead, Trump wants Vance hunting Democratic fraud, after granting clemency to more than 70 allies, donors, and others convicted in fraud cases.

Quite the fraud-fighting credibility.👌

💣 Trump Pulls Vance From Iran Talks (NYT)

✨ One Thing for Your Soul

In 1976, a young El Paso man named Ruben Garcia was running the diocese’s youth ministry and wanted Mother Teresa to come speak. No internet, no googling. He called information, got a number in Calcutta, and tracked her down in New York. Her answer: "For the youth? Then I shall come." Months later, he picked her up at El Paso International Airport. She inspired him to serve the "poorest of the poor," a calling that would become Annunciation House.

On February 3, 1978, Ruben and four other young Catholics moved into a rundown building near the border with no money and only a vague idea of how they’d serve. Almost five decades later, Ruben is still there, and Annunciation House has served more than half a million people.

For three years, Ken Paxton tried to shut it down, calling it a stash house. This week, days after Texas voters rejected his Senate bid, he dropped the case with prejudice, meaning it can never come back.

As an El Paso girl, I want you to understand what this place is: neighbors showing up for strangers who need food, shelter, and somewhere safe to land. The intimidation did significant damage. But this week, the people doing the helping can finally breathe easier.

Thank you, Texas voters.

🏠 Paxton Drops Fight to Shut Down Annunciation House (El Paso Matters)

You voted for change. Now I want to follow what that means where you live.

Who can breathe easier? Which organizations can finally get back to helping people? Where are you seeing progress, and who still needs someone in their corner?

Please send me those stories. As we head toward 2028, I want to keep a record of what changed, who made it happen and how it touched people’s lives. You helped make this moment possible. Let’s keep telling the story together.

With love,

Olivia