Saturday Morning Covfefe: This Isn’t Random

Surveillance, force, and attacks on the free press before the next election.

This week wasn’t loud chaos. It was something more dangerous: coordination.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the FBI crossing a line when it raided a reporter’s home and seized her devices, not because she was accused of a crime, but because she did her job. I warned then that when investigative power stops respecting its own guardrails, it doesn’t stop at one newsroom.

Now we have confirmation.

The arrest of independent journalists Don Lemon, Georgia Fort and two others wasn’t law enforcement. It wasn’t accountability. It was retribution.

One journalist who spent years calling out abuse of power. Another was documenting what federal agents were doing in real time. Instead of answers for a killing on the streets of Minneapolis, the Department of Justice went after the press.

That’s not justice. That’s intimidation.

This is what happens when scrutiny is treated as a threat, and journalism is reframed as danger. It’s a blatant attack on the First Amendment, and it follows the same escalation logic we’ve already seen: bypass guardrails, maximize pressure, let fear do the work.

What follows in this week’s 5 Things isn’t random. It’s a pattern. And pretending not to see it is no longer an option. This isn’t about panic. It’s about clarity.

Let’s get into it.

1. Militarizing Cities Isn’t Free, And You’re Paying the Bill

Trump’s domestic troop deployments aren’t just controversial. They’re expensive and escalating.

Taxpayers spent $496 million between June and December 2025 to deploy National Guard and active-duty troops inside U.S. cities. That doesn’t include the late-December deployment to New Orleans. At this pace, the cost tops $1 billion in 2026.

That breaks down to:

• $93 million per month

• $260 per troop, per day

• ~$95,000 per Guard member per year

Troops were sent to Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Memphis, Portland, and Chicago. While some deployments ended after court challenges, 2,500 troops remain in DC through 2026, largely insulated from legal review.

What we still don’t have: any public accounting of results, cost-benefit analysis, meaningful oversight, or clear legal authority in several cases.

As a former homeland security official, let me be clear: this isn’t crime policy. It’s federal force projection inside U.S. cities–paid for by taxpayers and normalized through repetition. Every dollar spent militarizing streets is a dollar not spent on housing, hospitals, disaster preparedness, or infrastructure.

Temporary “support” keeps becoming a semi-permanent presence. The costs rise, the guardrails weaken, and the bill lands on the public.

🪖 The True Cost of Trump’s City Deployments: ABC News

2. ICE Is Building a Surveillance Dragnet

ICE isn’t expanding enforcement. It’s changing the method. Quietly, the agency launched a nationwide “skip tracing” program to track ~1.5 million undocumented immigrants, not through warrants, but through private contractors assembling lives into databases. The agency is purchasing location data, personal records, and digital footprints from private firms. One major contract, potentially $365 million, was awarded to Capgemini, then paused after backlash. Beyond that, transparency and disclosure is minimal. What remains unclear is how far the data reaches, how long it’s stored, how errors are handled, and what limits exist once private companies control the system.

When surveillance runs through contracts instead of courts, accountability collapses. Immigration isn’t the end goal here; it’s the testing environment.

Infrastructure never stays narrow. Surveillance systems are never built for “everyone” at first. They’re built where resistance is weakest, then expanded.

👁️ ICE’s New Surveillance Program Is Bigger Than Immigration: WaPo

Which brings us to how this shows up in real life.

3. The ICE App Most Americans Don’t Know About, And Should

This isn’t data sitting on a server. It’s faces being scanned in real time.

ICE agents are using a mobile app that enables instant facial recognition in the field–no notice, no consent, almost no oversight. The app, Mobile Fortify, has already been used tens of thousands of times, including on minors.

People are never told they’ve been scanned and have no way to challenge it. Civil liberties experts warn the technology is spreading faster than any rules meant to govern it. This is biometric surveillance at the point of contact. When facial recognition becomes routine, anonymity disappears.

Again, surveillance tools introduced "for enforcement" don’t stay there. Immigration is the entry point. Everyone else is downstream.

I say that as a conservative who believes in the Fourth Amendment, free association, and a Constitution meant to limit government power, not automate it. A government that can scan your face without a warrant isn’t small. It’s unchecked.

📸 ICE Is Scanning Faces in Real Time: WIRED

4. Why They’re Relitigating 2020, And What It Signals for Future Elections

This week, the Justice Department forcibly reopened the 2020 election, not through new evidence, but through raids, firings, and coercive use of federal authority.

The FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County Elections Hub in Georgia, seizing hundreds of boxes of ballots, tabulator tapes, ballot images, and voter rolls from the 2020 election. At the same time, the head of the FBI’s Atlanta field office, Paul Brown, was removed after raising concerns about the legality and purpose of the investigation.

That’s not a coincidence. It’s preparation.

Here’s what’s unfolding:

• Federal authorities are reviving Trump’s long-debunked claims about Fulton County’s 2020 election

• Senior law enforcement leadership was sidelined after resisting searches tied to those claims

• Local officials say the investigation is being used as a pretext and a warning to election administrators.

• Serious concerns have already been raised about the chain of custody, even as officials claim to be investigating record integrity

There is no new evidence. There never was. There is, however, a roadmap.

This isn’t about changing the outcome of 2020. That’s settled–by audits, recounts, courts, and facts. This is about normalizing federal intervention in election administration so it can be used later.

Relitigating 2020 serves three purposes:

• Intimidate election officials now, ahead of 2026 and 2028

• Establish precedent for federal seizure of ballots and election records

• Chill participation, especially in jurisdictions that don’t vote the “right” way

As one local official warned, Fulton County is being used as a test case, a blueprint for what the federal government may attempt elsewhere.

2020 is being reopened to shape the future, and to send a message to anyone responsible for administering the next election: You’re next.

🗳️ The FBI’s Georgia Election Raid, Explained: The Guardian;🚨 The FBI Boss Who Said No, And Paid for It: MS Now

5. How Conservative Mormon Women Took on GOP Power, And Won

In a moment defined by federal overreach and power consolidation, something else is happening: people are organizing and winning.

In Utah, a bipartisan, faith-based group called Mormon Women for Ethical Government beat a Republican-led legislature in court over partisan gerrymandering. Voters had approved independent redistricting. Lawmakers tried to undo it. These women sued and won.

Now the maps must be redrawn, and a congressional seat could flip in 2026.

This wasn’t progressive activists. It wasn’t the national Democrats. And, it wasn’t outside money.

It was conservative women, grounded in faith and constitutional values, willing to say no to power abuse–even when it benefited their own party.

As one leader put it: "I’ll lose a Republican representative I respect if it means my neighbors get representative government."

That’s not the zero-sum politics dominating Washington right now. That’s legitimacy. While national power tightens its grip, local civic movements are quietly reminding us where democracy actually lives, and how it holds.

🌱 How Civic Courage Beat Gerrymandering in Utah: The Guardian

💖 One Thing for Your Soul

In Hamilton, Montana, one man turned loss into care. After losing a close friend who couldn’t get a safe ride to medical care, Daniel Foley started Giddy-Up Rides, offering transportation to seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities so they can get where they need to go safely.

Doctors’ appointments. The grocery store. The gym. Sometimes just out of the house.

He’s a former professional driver, and he’s not doing this for profit. He says he’s selling what he owns just to keep the service alive because the people who rely on it need it. One regular rider, a veteran, says those rides helped him return to walking after being in a wheelchair.

Daniel says many of his customers haven’t been out in a long time. Sometimes they just need a ride. Sometimes they just need someone to listen.

Not everything broken is permanent.

🚗 Giddy-Up Rides: Showing Up When It Matters: KPAX

Until next time,

Olivia