Saturday Morning Covfefe: 5 Things with Olivia
Truth with a shot of espresso.
The through-line this week? Manufactured outrage on one end, real abuses of power on the other. Coffee’s ready…
1. No One Was Mad at the Jeans, Until the Right-Wing Said We Were
It turns out no one was actually mad about the American Eagle ad where Sydney Sweeney zips up jeans and says, “My jeans are blue.” But that didn’t stop the right-wing content machine from pretending the left was foaming at the mouth over eugenics-coded slogans. What started with fringe TikTok videos spiraled into Fox News segments, and Trump Truth Social praise.
The outrage? Mostly invented. The viral clips? Boosted by right-wing influencers who love nothing more than finding a fake enemy to scream at. It’s the culture war feedback loop in action: gin up a backlash, then blame Democrats for not denouncing the backlash they didn’t start. Manufacturing division, stoking outrage, and turning Americans against one another is what used to be the work of foreign adversaries like Russia. Not it’s outsourced to right-wing media and elected officials. They’re no longer just culture warriors; they’re pawns. And from a national security perspective, that’s deeply concerning, because this won’t stop here.
👖 The Denim Disinformation Campaign: NY Times
2. The Fox Leak Trial That Could Criminalize Reporting
Tampa media consultant Timothy Burke is set for trial in September for leaking unaired Kanye West–Tucker Carlson footage from a Fox News feed. He says the material was publicly reachable; the feds say it was unauthorized interception and hacking, 14 felony counts in all.
This case extends far beyond a single leak. It now sits on the fault line between newsgathering and “hacking.” Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump appointee, is presiding. Her husband, Chad Mizelle, serves as Chief of Staff at Trump’s DOJ under Attorney General Pam Bondi, a connection that raises obvious optics concerns even though the case is prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Why are media advocates sounding the alarm? At the court’s request, amici (friends of the court) weighed in after the judge asked whether, setting aside the Wiretap Act’s exceptions, simply watching a streaming video or visiting a public webpage could fall within the statute. That’s why you’ll see the “Are Netflix viewers criminals?” hypothetical pop up in coverage: it’s a thought experiment about how far the law could reach.
Bottom line: Burke casts this as journalism; prosecutors call it hacking. The ruling(s) here could shape how far the government can go when “access” looks public but authorization is murky, and that’s why press‑freedom groups are on high alert. My worst nightmare scenario? This is the Trump dream: he attacks the press, his DOJ prosecutes the exposure, and a judge with inner circle ties decides whether the First Amendment survives.
3. Putin’s Mind Game Gift
During Moscow talks this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff a Soviet-era Order of Lenin award to pass to CIA official Juliane Gallina, whose son was killed in 2024 fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The CIA says the death was personal tragedy, not national security, and that Gallina’s son, wasn’t recruited by Moscow. Still, the move fits Putin’s playbook: exploit personal pain to create political discomfort.
Putin views Trump as a means to inflict humiliation and expects compliance. He handed a Soviet-era spy award to Trump’s hand-picked envoy, knowing it would gut-punch the CIA and that Trump wouldn’t object. It’s a power move: drag the CIA through the mud, mock the national security apparatus, and still get the photo op. That’s not mutual respect, it’s dominance.
Now, the two are set to meet in Alaska next week. I’ve long warned that Putin would visit the U.S. early in a second Trump term—and here we are. My biggest fear? That Trump agrees to hand over large swaths of Ukraine, Putin’s opening demand in cease-fire talks this week, in exchange for a deal he can sell as “peace.” It’s now a very real possibility, and my heart is with Ukraine. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
🇷🇺 From Russia with “Respect”- CBS News
4. For Every Family Who’s Watched a Loved One Slip Away: This Discovery Could Be the Turning Point
A new Harvard study suggests lithium, might not just explain Alzheimer’s, it could treat it. As plaques form, they bind lithium, depleting it. The breakthrough? A lithium compound that avoids plaque capture reversed Alzheimer’s symptoms in mice.
The stakes? Huge. Alzheimer’s affects between 50 million and 400 million people worldwide. If this holds up in human trials, we're talking about a rewrite.
And the worst part? The study was made possible by federal funding, now facing cuts. Harvard warns that research like this may not survive.
💊 Alzheimer’s, Meet Your Match? Harvard Study
5. Uber’s “Tolerable Risk” Was You.
Every 8 minutes. That’s how often a report of sexual assault or misconduct was filed during Uber rides in the U.S. from 2017 to 2022, over 400,000 incidents, many sealed in court until now. Behind its slick ads and corporate rebranding, Uber buried internal findings, dismissed red flags, and shelved safety tech that could have stopped rapes, all to protect its bottom line. Even just typing that made me feel physical ill.
Executives withheld features like women-only ride pairings in the U.S., fearing lawsuits and "culture war blowback," even delaying the rollout after Trump's re-election in 2024. They paused life-saving safety measures because they feared political fallout under Donald Trump. This wasn’t a failure of technology. It was a failure of courage and corporate conscience.
“Are our actions (or lack of actions) defensible?” an internal Uber report asked.
The answer, from any decent human being, is no.
Meanwhile, victims were assaulted, silenced, or blamed. Uber called these attacks "rare," but its own AI had predicted which rides posed a danger and dispatched them anyway.
If you’ve ever felt uneasy in a car, you weren’t imagining it. If you’ve ever wondered if profit matters more than people, you have your answer.
🚨 Uber’s Worst Kept Secret: NY Times, 🎧The Daily Podcast
Listening to The Daily podcast episode shook me to my core as I thought about the horrifying experiences of all of these victims. The timing of this investigative piece couldn’t have been more striking, because I’ve been deep into an intense new novel built around this very kind of scenario.
📱📺This Tuesday, August 12 at 12PM ET
I’ll be live on Substack with Dan Schorr, former sex crimes and domestic violence prosecutor–turned–novelist, for a timely conversation you do not want to miss.
His new book Open Bar isn’t just fiction. It’s ripped from real cases and real people, exposing the systems that protect abusers, silence victims, and punish truth-tellers. I read an advance copy, and it shook me. Some characters felt eerily familiar…because I’ve met their real-life counterparts along the way.
We’ll talk privilege, power, and the predators hiding in plain sight, and why these patterns keep repeating.
📚 Open Bar drops the same day, August 12. Mark your calendar. Bring your questions. And be ready for a candid, unflinching and very timely conversation.
☀️ONE THING FOR YOUR SOUL
He thought he was too old to save lives. At 76, he has saved over 3,000. Meet Ed Levien, a retired advertising executive and one of Maryland's oldest EMTs. After a honeymoon moped crash left him in chronic pain, strangers helped him get through the worst. So at 65, he joined the rescue squad to return the favor. He trained alongside 20-somethings, ran emergency calls with hearing aids and emphysema, delivered babies, and stopped bleeding with his own body. They call him “Pops.”
Now retired from the ambulance, he still shows up to train rookies and check on neighbors.
“I never had an impact on anyone until I started doing this,” he said.
He thought it was too late to matter. Turns out, it was just the beginning.
Outrage gets airtime, but impact comes from those who show up, whether it’s a scientist hunting cures or a retired EMT still answering the call. Keep watching, keep speaking, and don’t let the noise drown out the signal. See you Tuesday!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!!😉
Sigh. SMDH…
–Olivia
Another great post. I share your concern about Putin's visit. Putin is desperate, and he's got a willing partner in Donald Trump. I hope Ukraine survives intact.
I really like how you lay out your reporting. Today, I clicked on several links as I was reading through and got more background from your sources. I didn't have to sift through the bibliography at the end. Thanks.