Saturday Morning Covfefe: 5 Things That Explain This Moment

Power doesn’t hide. It signals. This week’s signals matter.

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Trump doesn’t need international law. His own sense of “morality” is the only limit to his presidential power. Those are HIS words. I’ve said this before: he always tells us exactly what he’s doing and thinking.

Imagine if Obama had said half of this out loud. *sips coffee*

So here’s what I’m watching, and why it matters. These five headlines aren’t random. Together, they tell a very clear story.

1) The Plaque They Don’t Want You to See

The U.S. Senate unanimously voted to display the January 6 plaque honoring the law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol five years ago, after House Republicans refused to hang it.

In case you missed it, here’s what actually happened:
A bipartisan Senate resolution, led by Senators Jeff Merkley and Thom Tillis, will place the plaque in a publicly accessible spot in the Senate wing. No House approval needed. No Trump signature required. All 100 senators agreed.

Why the workaround? Because Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to comply with a 2022 law mandating the plaque, claiming the language was "not implementable." (Translation: a semantic fig leaf to avoid honoring officers whose actions complicate a preferred narrative.)

Why this matters: This isn’t about metal on a wall. It’s about memory. When those in power won’t honor the people who defended democracy, it’s not bureaucratic, it’s ideological. The Senate didn’t just hang a plaque; it hung a line in the sand: the truth belongs in public view. This vote also lands amid a broader effort to rewrite January 6. The White House has now published its own version, one that contradicts the evidentiary record and whose delusion may make you nauseous. Despite findings that the former president inspired the violence and that prosecutors amassed proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the revisionism continues.

What’s next: Litigation continues until the plaque gets its permanent home. Nancy Pelosi says if Democrats retake the House in 2026, Hakeem Jeffries will place it "in a place of honor."

🕯️ Honoring January 6, Whether the House Likes It or Not: The Hill

2. The Biggest Global Risk in 2026 Isn’t Abroad, It’s the United States

This year’s global risk picture isn’t defined by a single war or foreign adversary. It’s defined by the United States pulling apart the rules, institutions, and alliances it once enforced. When the world’s stabilizer becomes its biggest question mark, the consequences don’t stay contained, they ripple outward.

That concern is now being voiced well beyond Washington. This week, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued an unusually blunt warning, urging world leaders not to let the global order collapse into what he called a "den of robbers," a world where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want and rules no longer apply. He pointed directly to U.S. behavior as a historic rupture in the system America once helped build, a warning echoed by Pope Leo XIV, who cautioned that "war is back in vogue" and that the post–World War II ban on violating borders by force is being dangerously eroded.

There you have it. You don’t have to take my word for it. This assessment is now shared well beyond Washington.

🇺🇸 When the World’s Stabilizer Becomes the Wild Card: Time

3. America Walks Away, Again

In one sweeping move, Donald Trump withdrew the United States from 66 international organizations and treaties—spanning climate, science, education, human rights, cybersecurity, and economic cooperation. Among them: the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

This isn’t just symbolic. It removes the U.S. from the rooms where global rules are written—on energy, resilience, data, and climate risk—while every other major economy moves forward. The science doesn’t disappear. The alliances don’t pause. America just forfeits influence, information, and leverage.

Walking away doesn’t protect U.S. interests; it hands an advantage to competitors, leaves communities flying blind as climate impacts accelerate, and replaces leadership with absence. This is a retreat by choice, at exactly the moment coordination matters most.

🌐 Walking Away From the World, One Treaty at a Time: The Guardian

4. Greenland Is Not a Real Estate Listing

As you likely know, I’ve been warning about this for a while, and now a bipartisan group of 15 former senior U.S. officials is saying it out loud: talk of using military force to “take” Greenland is reckless, dangerous, and strategically foolish.

The memo, sent to the White House, State Department, and Congress, includes four former U.S. ambassadors to NATO, multiple former assistant secretaries of state for Europe, and former White House Europe leads. Their message is blunt: threatening an ally like Denmark over Greenland would fracture NATO, hand propaganda victories to Russia and China, and destroy one of America’s greatest strategic advantages, its alliances.

This comes after Donald Trump again suggested the U.S. might need to “take” Greenland, language that has triggered alarm across Europe and forced emergency damage control by allies, including the U.K. and NATO leadership.

The authors stress what should be obvious: Denmark has been one of America’s most reliable allies, from Korea to Afghanistan, to countering Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic. There are many ways to protect U.S. interests in Greenland. Military threats are not one of them.

Greenland isn’t a trophy. And foreign policy isn’t a real estate deal.

🛑 How to Lose Allies in One Headline: Axios

5. The Kennedy Center Is Losing the Opera—and the Plot

I’ve been tracking what’s happening at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts closely, because history tells us something important: when power feels threatened, it comes for culture first.

Now it’s happening in plain sight. The Washington National Opera, which has performed at the Kennedy Center since 1971, is pulling out after a steep drop in attendance, donor support, and growing concern over political interference during Donald Trump’s second term. That includes Trump naming himself chair, installing internet troll Richard Grenell as executive director, and reshaping programming expectations in ways artists say threaten creative independence.

Opera leaders are clear: this isn’t just about money. It’s about control: over programming, personnel, and whether art that challenges power is still welcome. Artists are canceling. Donors are walking. And now one of the country’s most important opera companies is leaving the building entirely.

This is one of the clearest signals that the fight over the arts isn’t symbolic, it’s structural. The Kennedy Center was meant to be a national monument to creativity, not a branding exercise or a political loyalty test. When artists decide the cost of staying is silence, they don’t just leave a venue; they leave silence. They leave a warning.

History is full of moments where art became the last honest witness. This feels like one of them. Wherever they go, I will support them and follow. I hope you will, too. They need us now more than ever. They just lost their home.🤍

🎭 Artists Are Voting With Their Feet: NY Times

Because sometimes all you can do is laugh…
The National Park Service says your America the Beautiful pass can be voided if you cover Trump’s face on it with stickers. Wildlife was fine for 20 years. Now even sticker residue is a problem. From wildlife to worship. It’s so narcissistic and absurd that you can only laugh.

What’s next? Mandatory mugshot portraits at our homes by the front door?

🏞️ America the Beautiful (Terms Apply): NPR

🕯️ One Thing for Your Soul

People across the country are showing up for Renee Macklin Good—and for all who are grieving and saying enough. Neighbors showing up for neighbors. This is what remembrance looks like.

Presence is its own form of resistance. Hold onto that.

-Olivia