Kristi Noem’s was a long, rocky climb to power. It started with the procurement of a grotesque sculpture she commissioned to aesthetically defile a home state landmark, a Mount Rushmore replica with Trump’s face chiseled alongside those of Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt and Lincoln.
Hers was a path strewn with murdered dogs and goats, a road paved with implants provided by the official cosmetic dentist to the Miss Texas USA Pageant, from whom she received rows of unnaturally uniform and gleaming white Chiclets, and painful plastic surgery to achieve an aggressively synthetic Mar-a-Lago face.
But the 53-year-old director of the federal agency with the most Teutonic name of them all, the Department of Homeland Security, has finally achieved She Wolf of CECOT status.
Had to triple-check this was real. It is.
— Annika Brockschmidt (@ardenthistorian.bsky.social) March 27, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Noem’s $60K Rolex and sporty, moisture-wicking LL Bean hiking togs are calculated to form a fetching contrast to the stacks of half-naked prisoners with shaved heads in the background. At the sight of this set piece, angry, recliner-bound, Fox News-viewing shut-ins nationwide likely experienced a frisson that reminded them of the last natural boner they experienced decades ago.
Is this peak degeneracy? Friends, I doubt that very much. We’re just over two months into a four-year nightmare.
Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but this makes me sick to my soul. Hopefully someone will come along with a more uplifting post soon. Meanwhile, discuss whatever — open thread.
On The Road – Auntie Anne – Southeast Asia – The Floating Market, Thailand 3 of 3
Baud
They produce reality TV designed to go viral. People watch it to love it or hate it, but the second important thing is they watch.
The most important thing is that most of them never commit themselves to stopping it.
Baud
Uplifting news? Reposted from below.
bjacques
Cripes. Of course the Fox fappers are her real audience. The ostensible audience are unlikely to ever see it.
MagdaInBlack
“Sick to my soul” is the best description of what I am feeling every day, Betty.
lowtechcyclist
We’re well into Niemöller time, aren’t we?
First they came for trans persons, then for Venezuelan immigrants with tattoos they didn’t like, then for students from the Near East with opinions they didn’t like…
prostratedragon
So here we are. Words fail.
Baud
Via reddit
Dorothy A. Winsor
What the hell is wrong with this woman?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: I’m sure the DoJ will hop right on that.
Eural Joiner
In 1941 Heinrich Himmler and other top Nazis filmed a visit to Minsk to proudly show off their camp and labor system. It was later entered as evidence against them at the Nuremberg trials after the war.
Kristi Noem can rot in Hell.
(Also, I’m sure she brags about being a devout follower of Christ…these people are 100% atheist non-believers, it’s impossible to read the Gospels and come away with this behavior. Actually, I know several atheists who are much better human beings than this lot!)
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
People complain that Dems aren’t being tough, so I thought that statement would be well received.
prostratedragon
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Predicates?
Suzanne
Want to see something crazy? The Reddest and Bluest Baby Names
Are the parents of Oakley, Oaklee, Oakleigh, and Oaklynn naming their daughters after the sunglasses?
linnen
Seriously? Don’t put this attitude on atheists. Ever read how religious leaders justify themselves?
twbrandt
Not a huge step from shooting puppies to this, apparently.
Princess
@Eural Joiner: She is representative of the beliefs and practices of millions of Christians, as is the woman promising seven blessings to people who send her a thousand dollars. I don’t see American Christian leaders, even the ones who you’d prefer we identify as Christians, denouncing these people’s definition of themselves as Christians.
twbrandt
@Dorothy A. Winsor: you have to put a marker down somewhere.
oldster
“At the sight of this set piece, angry, recliner-bound, Fox News-viewing shut-ins nationwide likely experienced a frisson that reminded them of the last natural boner they experienced decades ago.”
That’s a lie! I can’t even afford a recliner!
Ksmiami
So fascism then. We need to tear these people apart. It’s the only thing they understand.
Baud
@Princess:
Agree. I value decent Christians who are offended, but Christianity what Christians make of it.
I’m offended by Trump as an American, but until we are successful in producing a country more in line with our values, he and his people represent America.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: That is wild! I had no idea “Kohen” or “Cohen” were popular first names. (Probably because I’ve decidedly aged out of the demo with childbearing contemporaries!)
As for naming kids after a sunglasses brand, it wouldn’t surprise me. My sister and I used to joke about our redneck step-siblings and cousins naming kids for pickup trucks, e.g., Sierra, Dakota, etc.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
That sums up the gestalt of this moment in US history.
japa21
@Princess: They are out there, they are very verbal, but the media refuses to talk about it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: I like Nadler calling perjury out. I just don’t think anyone in this administration cares.
zhena gogolia
@japa21: It seems to me the very first person to call out Trump to his face since the inauguration (and maybe the last) was a Christian minister.
zhena gogolia
@Dorothy A. Winsor: And they don’t care about anything the Bernie or AOC say either, but somehow that gets big kudos around here.
Spanky
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Whatever it is, it’s a requirement for the job in this administration.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Agreed. But that’s true of everything we do.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Maine’s governor got in his face.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I’m not sure what her religious status is, but let me guess she goes to church.
Wikipedia:
Let me just guess she’s UCC.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I don’t know. Probably.
JML
Real possibility that Noem is a sociopath. But she’s basically the right-wing ideal: a white person willing to body mod themselves to meet the right-wing beauty standards with high levels of selfishness and cruelty wrapped in a “pretty” package and lots of loud proclamations about God and Being A Christian.
Horrible. She’s found a legally-sanctioned (in this government anyways) outlet for her serial killer tendencies…
zhena gogolia
And Stalin was most definitely an atheist.
People in different groups don’t all behave the same. But I agree with Eural Joiner.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That Single Chat leak – the thing that strikes me is how much the chat remind me of transcript of the real briefing the Downfall bunker scene is based on ; between the cynics saying “I don’t think this is a good idea” and the true believers making stuff to over ride them.
catclub
I don’t think that they are. they are the names that differ most in frequency between red and blue states.
So all the kids named Moshe are in blue states, but it might be vanishingly rare as a name.
I think the article makes sure not to make that clear.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Anything to keep the focus on the national security-breaching liars is good in my book. Also appreciated Senator Duckworth calling Hegseth a “fucking liar” on TV and reiterating the point on Fox News. I used to strenuously object to Dems going on Fox News, but I think I was wrong about that.
@catclub: Ah, fair point.
French Onion Soup
@Suzanne:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Oakley
The brand Oakley got it’s name from the founders dog Oakley Ann. Said dog was named after said American female sharpshooter. The sharpshooter is sort of an gun nut icon. So who knows?
Oakley also isn’t politically coded. They are the default sports glasses for everyone and their prescription glasses are very popular among fancy office types. RayBan’s are also really popular among the fascists. This is a brand that made COVID 19 masks which is a cardinal sin.
prostratedragon
@Betty Cracker: Or a pop singing group, like Ronette.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I’ve changed my mind about Dems and the media now that i realize how weak we are. Weakness leaves fewer options.
But I do hope more Dems also learn to find alternative media as well.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: The trends are fascinating. Like this one:
I zoomed in on that, because Mr. Suzanne and I are both of Italian descent on our paternal sides, and there has been much discussion of Italian-Americans being a pretty red-leaning group. That is not a thing that I have observed in my personal experience (which is not me asserting that it isn’t true). What I’ve seen is that Italians are like every other subgroup of white people at this point — stark generational and educational divides.
And this:
And we get the reputation as godless liberals!
catclub
Kids named after the place they were conceived:
Eleuthera – tropical island vacation.
Formica Dinette – kinky.
Kids named after foods:
Orangelo and Lemongelo
I heard all those names over the school intercom.
Baud
More people need to name their kids Baud.
It’s gender neutral!
lowtechcyclist
@Princess:
If a tree falls in the forest, and the MSM doesn’t cover it, does it make a sound?
Suzanne
@French Onion Soup:
Strong disagree. When I first really noticed them getting popular, when I was in college, they seemed to be on trend for all kinds of men. But they are definitely a douchebag style statement at this point. Have you seen the meme about guys on dating apps wearing Oakleys sitting in their trucks?
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: This part of their comment is 100% offensive bullshit, imo:
If it offends you when people make slanderous, broad-brush assumptions about Christians, you should find this objectionable too, imo. I do in both cases.
satby
@Princess: Several do, but they don’t have media presence. John Pavlovitz does, and here’s something appropriate he wrote in 2022: A Funeral for My Christianity.
JML
@catclub: not a fan at all of naming kids after food. Oof.
catclub
@Baud: Best of all, when they determine how common it is there will be a baud rate.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JML: I was just thinking about Noem probably genuinely having something wrong. She shot her own dog, and now this pose with these caged men. She’s missing empathy. The last kind of person who should have power.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
I think there was an idea that our absence would make a sound. I don’t think that works when something else will just fill in that absence with other noise, you know?
Spanky
@JML: You got a problem with my daughter, Purina?
//
Suzanne
@catclub: Spawn the Elder had classmates Aidan, Brayden, Hayden, Jayden, and Caden. And one named Alize, after the alcohol.
Spawn the Younger has had friends Isabella, Isabelle, Bella, and Zabella.
satby
@zhena gogolia: Church of Christ maybe, the kind of church that claims Roman Catholics aren’t Christian. But not UCC, because that’s a very liberal denomination.
in the hills
reminded me of the prisoners chorus from “fidelio”.
this maladministration really sucks ass.
Nelle
OT – my encounter with a MAGA yesterday. Mr. Nellie was trying to push the Piper back in the hanger (flying club Piper, new hanger) and the entrance has about a 2 1/2 inch lip to get over. He came and got me to help. I gave it a good shove on the wing (he was pushing at the prop) and he fell on the cement. I ran and found the first person with a heartbeat and after he was in motion to come help, I noticed his MAGA hat (it was faded, so he’s a long-timer). Friends, I hesitated. Meanwhile, he was on the move. Mr. Nellie was up by the time the MAGA guy got over there, and they got the plane in. Gave me something to ponder about him, my reaction, and why I almost typed MAGA hate, instead of MAGA hat. I was grateful for his help. (Going to make some tiny tire ramps for next time. Husband is fit, swims most days and does resistance exercises three days a week, but he is 81. The Piper weighs 2,500 pounds.) I have met some very fine people who drink from the wrong bucket (one neighbor mowed my lawn for three years, no pay, just wanted a bigger lawn to mow. We had moved back from overseas and didn’t have a lawnmower yet – never bought one. Nicest neighbor, but hoo-boy, his politics didn’t match his persona. A mystery.)
Sherparick
@Baud: The lying under oath, knowing Goldberg had the whole transcript, is what is called “power lying,” a reminder, like Noem’s visiting a death camp in El Salvador, that “we are the top of the in-group protected by the law, but not bound by it; the rest of you are bound by the law, but not protected by it. So what if we lie? Trump & Murdoch will make it the “truth” tomorrow.
Betty
These people are sadists, led by the Sadist-in- Chief, Stephen Miller. Trump just simply doesn’t care about anyone but himself, but these two actively rejoice in the suffering of others.
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne:
If that’s true, it’s a shame, since I’ve been a good customer of theirs for over 30 years now, and have many pairs of Oakley sunglasses and ski goggles. And I don’t think I’m a douchebag (but I could be wrong on that.)
twbrandt
Danish TV reports that US reps were going door-to-door in Nuuk, Greenland, looking for people willing to talk to Usha Vance. Finding none, they canceled her trip.
Serves her right.
Baud
@twbrandt:
Nice!
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: Yep, that’s it. My (faulty) rationale at the time was that if Dems refused to appear on Fox News, the network would lose mainstream advertisers. That did happen a few times on some shows — I think Tucker Carlson was down to peddling Gold Bond medicated powder and My Pillows for a while. But in the limited universe of cable news, the right-wing propaganda factory remains a relative success.
Also, what Baud said at #39.
Gin & Tonic
I’m not going to watch the Noem clip (I’m having breakfast and want to keep it down) but I read yesterday some video people suggesting that she’s superimposed on a vid of the jail, not actually standing in front of the prisoners there IRL.
Betty
@Suzanne: Pity the teacher trying to keep them all straight. At least they aren’t hard to pronounce.
rebelsdad
@Eural Joiner: As Jesus Himself said, you will know a tree by its fruits.
I think a lot of atheists will be surprised to end up in Paradise while tons of “Christians” end up in a fiery furnace.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: Fortunately, the majority of people, even these days, aren’t on dating apps or heavily consuming other online media. We just forget that here sometimes.
Suzanne
@Gin & Tonic: I hear you. It is frustrating when things take on political semiotics.
How Oakley came to be accused of ‘fascism’ for selling Thin Blue Line sunglasses
rebelsdad
@Princess: If you don’t hear us denouncing them, then you’re not listening closely enough. Sometimes the sole voice of righteousness comes from the Whos and only Horton can hear it.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: Wouldn’t surprise me. The current administration isn’t willing to go to “shit hole countries”, just to use them for their own purposes.
rebelsdad
@oldster: That line made me gag, I really don’t want to think of my crustyass uncle with a boner.
WTFGhost
@Princess: I’d ask for kindness, because there are no sufficiently amplified Christian voices that aren’t tainted by right-wing hate in America.
And, while it’s true you can’t find a *specific* point of doctrine, that all Christian churches agree on, that kicks out Kristi Noem, that’s a very uncaring classification – factual, yes, but who loves a person who whacks them with facts, when courtesy can be used instead?
Lots of good people, for whom Christianity is a deeply personal journey, feel that people like Noem are evil, and a blot on something beautiful. I’d like people to fight people like Noem, with a sense that people like Noem truly are a blot on something beautiful.
Plato would probably say that I should prefer someone whose only hunger is for JUSTICE or something, but, I’m not Plato, and I have more important thinking to do, so, anyone who has a motive I trust – like, “Noem is a blot on Christianity, because the Gospels preach love!” has to be on the same side as those who swear they only yearn for JUSTICE. Because face it, such people are probably lying about something else, too, not just “yearning only for justice” – eventually, everyone wants a cheese steak or slice of pizza.
Steve in the ATL
I posted this song a few days ago for some other horrible female in the t***p administration, but it likely applies to every one of them. She’s a Monster by our Australian friends from the eighties, the Stems.
Doug R
@Eural Joiner: Thanks. Shared a couple of photos of Himmler-1941 and 1945.
And dropped Matthew 25.
Betty Cracker
@Nelle: People are complicated, and it genuinely IS a mystery. My queer AF adult child left Florida with our blessing and assistance and now lives in a tolerant and liberal-ass PNW urban area but has observed that if you have car or boat trouble down here, you can count on a redneck with horrible politics to go miles out of their way to help you out, whereas city folks are more likely to pass you by. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s a tendency I’ve noticed many times too. Glad hubby is okay.
Baud
There’s that young white guy in Texas who’s very articulate. I think he’s religious but I don’t know if he’s a preacher.
Salty Sam
@Gin & Tonic:
@Suzanne:
I think it’s time to bring Omnes into the chat and open it up to include khaki cargo shorts!
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
There can be a cost to the mind your own business attitude that urban folks are more likely to have.
twbrandt
@Baud: If you’re referring to James Talarico, he’s a Texas state legislator who’s also studying at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary with the goal of becoming an ordained Presbyterian minister. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is one of the more progressive denominations. He’s an impressive guy.
ETA: There are several Presbyterian denominations, the PC (USA) is the largest and most progressive. The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is smaller and very right-wing.
WTFGhost
@rebelsdad: I don’t tend to freak over physical responses of others – I guess I’m too old for that meme to have taken personal effect on me. Still, if there was someone, getting an erection, who I really didn’t want to think about getting an erection, I’d still be… clinical, I guess, clinical about it, if I knew it was due to the prospect of consensual sex.
…and not due to “OMG hatemonger in front of caged men” because, *eeewwww.* Are there really American people who can get off on that? Gross.
satby
@Baud: James Talerico. He is completing a Master of Divinity at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
twbrandt got there first.
Baud
@twbrandt:
I assume there’s only one impressive young white guy in Texas politics, so that’s probably him. I’ve seen clips that have gone viral. He’s very good.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
zhena gogolia
@satby: I mean Janet Mills.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Reddit being the last bastion against fascism wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card.
satby
@zhena gogolia: oh, ok. Not Noem, obviously.
marklar
@Suzanne: I taught a class last semester where, sitting right next to each other, were Lily, Ellie, and Laila.
When I took attendance I thought I was yodeling.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
BJ isn’t the last bastion against fascism?
Baud
@twbrandt:
Was the National Cathedral minister Presbyterian or Episcopalian?
different-church-lady
@Baud: We’re kind of an overturned chair in the path of fascism.
Betty Cracker
One of the kindest, most ethical people I know is a liberal Christian. We argue about the nature of “grace” sometimes. She contends that it’s inextricably a divine gift, whereas I think it can describe unearned kindness and forbearance from human beings. It’s semantics.
Anyway, whenever I hear someone slam Christians indiscriminately, like the notorious troll we had around this blog for quite a while, I object on my friend’s behalf because they are defaming her, and she doesn’t deserve that. I know she would speak up if someone tried to put Kristi Fucking Noem in the same group as me.
She and I are going to a Tesla Takedown protest this weekend. Here’s one of the signs I made, with memes lifted from previous protest-related chants.
I think maybe the theme is too online to be effective, and also, my doge drawing looks too much like Tigger, but I have others.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
As an online person myself, I like it.
Good for you.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
We will rebuild.
prostratedragon
@Gin & Tonic: It’s said in the family that my grandfather owned a Cadillac until he noticed who many of the other owners in town were, whereon he traded it in for a Plymouth.
twbrandt
@Baud: Episcopalian.
Baud
@twbrandt:
Thanks.
David Fud
It is too bad those “how other people see me” graphics went out of style. Here’s my idea for someone more capable with computer graphics to put together a “perspectives of Kristi Noem” graphic:
How strangers see me: KN face on ICE agent dragging an immigrant
How friends see me: KN digging in a dumpster fire
How my hook-ups see me: Corey Lewandowski checking out KN
How my children see me: KN shooting dog photo
How Europeans see me: Nazi in front of Auschwitz
How Trump sees me: bikini clad KN in front of Auschwitz
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
Thank you for raising this point. Godless, secular humanist that I am, I’m no militant atheist by any stretch but it’s the height of arrogance when god-botherers of any flavor think they have a monopoly on moral teachings, good deeds, all that stuff.
We’ve done far more outright charitable work (non-political) in our lives than, for example, most of the practicing Catholics that surrounded us back in red, rurl Central Misery. This isn’t necessarily to pin point Catholics as the issue, they just happened to be the primary religious group in that area and none of em did shit for free.
Sad thing is I’m in a blue place now and everything is transactional. It’s different but the end result is kinda the same.
narya
@WTFGhost: Mmmmm . . . cheesesteaks. I used to live around the corner from Jim’s on South Street
ETA: And throw in some TastyKakes while we’re at it, please? Chocolate cream-filled.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
“Go tell your little brother Rayban dinner’s ready.”
Chief Oshkosh
@Nelle: Might suggest a winch to your husband. I don’t know the hangar set-up, but I installed a winch to pull plane into the hangar. Pulling a taildragger out is usually a lot easier and so the assist isn’t needed going out. I used to use on an old boat trailer hand winch, but now have a 12V powered one, which was very inexpensive from Harbor Freight.
Baud
@prostratedragon:
That’s why I stopped wearing platform shoes with live goldfish in them.
BretH
@Betty Cracker: That sign made my day! I think it’s perfect.
Another Scott
@Baud: Being smart and good at school is good.
But I hope s/he (haven’t clicked the link) doesn’t get burned out by the time they’re 20-25. Ultimately, humans (almost always) have to fit in human society and other humans can be a big problem for 6-sigma outliers.
:-(
Have a good Thursday, everyone.
Best wishes,
Scott.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Damn… my whole image of you is shattered…
different-church-lady
@prostratedragon: Same thing happening to Tesla right now.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Nelle:
I’ve related this story before. When we moved back to Denver, I would run around City Park at the ungodly hour of 3am. Each morning I’d run into two elderly black ladies walking. Over time, we stop and chat and eventually when I hurt myself, I started walking with them. Oddest sight, skinny white dude and one black lady in her 70s and the other in her 80s out at 3am. We did that for a year.
The oldest is an old school Dem. The younger? Votes for Trump. And yet, she’s active in her tiny church (our formerly redlined neighborhoods have many, most of which are closing as their congregations have been displaced by the tsunami of white gentrifiers), does massive amounts of charity work and is the kindest, sweetest person on the planet. She didn’t wear her politics on her sleeve but the older lady on mornings when it was just me and her, clued me in.
She really is Good People…we just never talked politics, only issues and then tangentially.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud:
“Last bastion”!? Motherfucker, we’re the goddamned Front Line!
Now pass me them Cheetos…
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
There it is.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
I fully agree with this part, and don’t see it as slandering anyone. Well, maybe I’d put it “to read and live according to the Gospels.”
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I call it outsourcing hate.
lowtechcyclist
@catclub:
The reddest girls’ name is ‘Hattie’ which makes sense because that’s a name that would have just about entirely dropped out of use, except for fundie parents naming daughters after Hattie Durham, the most prominent female character in the Left Behind books.
The bluest girls’ name is Fiona, which I’m sure got a big boost in popularity from the Shrek movies. And now I’ve got “Morning Person” from Shrek Jr. as an earworm, which is not a complaint!
artem1s
W admin, IC and military thought they were immune from consequences after 9/11.
Then this happened
Abu Ghraib
US Military prisoner abuse
Deputinize America
@Nelle:
“Piper, noooooooooooooo….”
Sorry, that’s my White Lotus response to that word every time.
different-church-lady
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
A good friend’s mother is like that. The friend is sane and liberal. The mother’s very generous and kind, but there’s a minor toy or two in the attic. The mother is very Christian — low key, but present. Apparently the Christian tribalism overrides her ability to think critically on politics. (Friend talked her out of supporting Trump this round, so it’s not impossible.)
zhena gogolia
@Deputinize America: Hmmm, I must not have gotten to that part of the show yet.
different-church-lady
@Chief Oshkosh: Shit, I’m all out of dry socks.
satby
Josh Johnson on What’s Crashing Out Harder, DOGE or Tesla?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I appreciate people finding for the soul of their faith, but history shows that it’s not impossible to read the Gospels to justify lots of awful behavior.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
I’ll confess it goes right over my head. Shiba Inu??
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Mascot for DOGE coin crypto.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@lowtechcyclist:
That’s facinating…and all too typical.
Back in the latter half of the 90s after we moved to red, rurl Central Misery, suddenly every new baby girl was being named Michaela (with the usual gazillion different spellings to differentiate them). After a couple of years of this, somebody finally told me why:
Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman
None of this was political. We also chalked this up to the white rurl crowd looking at how black children names were radically different and wanted to do something equally distinctive.
We also used to joke that by 2002, if a 3rd-grade teacher with their back to the class called out “Taylor, do you have an answer to what I just wrote on the board?” that half the classes hands would go up, half boys, half girls.
Jackie
Whoops! Another who shouldn’t have been invited on the Signal group chat… WA state’s “favorite MAGA white nationalist”:
prostratedragon
@Baud:
Gave up the Fly Guy style, eh?
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Learning that just now. Knew about the crypto Doge coin, of course, but can’t say I’d ever given a thought to what any of these imaginary units theoretically looked like.
wenchacha
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The photo feels like bad porn or something. She isn’t dressed like a professional law enforcement person, and we know she chooses her cosplay outfits.
She looks like she enjoys displaying her cute, tough, self in front of all these nearly naked savage men who would just love to get near her. Creepy.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: I agree that part isn’t slanderous.
wenchacha
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: I read it as, “These people don’t believe in God even though they profess to do so,” not “All people who don’t believe in God are as bad as these people.”
I liked your sign too, although it does look like Tigger or Jorts.
Belafon
@Eural Joiner:
You probably know a lot of atheists. Most of us are really nice people, who actually think a lot of things attributed to Jesus are worth following. But we’re not going to tell people who we are because too many people have a “You’re one of those good ones” attitude. It would be like saying “You’re one of those gays who doesn’t hit on men all the time.”
Belafon
@Baud:
I don’t see that happening quickly.
lowtechcyclist
Noem’s saying, “if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face.”
First of all, being sent to a foreign forced-labor camp where torture has been known to take place is a wildly disproportionate consequence for being in America illegally. Whether or not the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments theoretically applies to people in the U.S. illegally, it damn well should be treated as if it does, because that Amendment should be indicative of who we are and what America’s principles are.
Second, how do we know the prisoners in the video were in our country illegally? We don’t even know their names. We haven’t been presented with a single piece of evidence about them, AFAIK. So we don’t know why they’re suffering these consequences, other than due to the sadism that seems to be an underlying characteristic of this Administration.
@wenchacha:
Creepy indeed.
Matt
“You can’t expect Christians to condemn this publicly, it would be risky for them”
Bullshit. We’ve had to listen to them simper about being the “moral backbone” of the country for decades. Their messiah didn’t say “do things in my name if it’s not too much hassle”.
This is also why IMO the whole “we can’t give up on Trump voters” pitch is nonsense; a person who looks at this and thinks it’s dandy is garbage.
montanareddog
I am genuinely unable to understand this Waltz/Venmo scandal. I am not a VENMO user. I can understand that Venmo has a sort of address book for you to store the account details of people to whom you regularly send money:
prostratedragon
@Jackie:
But on the other hand,
And furthermore,
Eural Joiner
Yeah, just to clarify – you can find people throughout history of every belief and motivation committing horrific atrocities. I just find Noem’s version of “Christianity” particularly galling since you have to ignore every single word and act of Jesus in the Gospels to get there. So… not a follower of Christ. And, yes, I realize, due to social/cultural/racial constructs there are millions of Americans who subscribe to the same definition of being a Christian, and they are also profoundly wrong as well. I mean, the biggest critic of this very belief was Jesus himself! (Matthew 7 is a good start)
I know several wonderful, beautiful atheists…also a few total assholes as well, just like everyone else! :)
jonas
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Nor do their voters. “Nothing matters. Nobody gives a shit” is the new motto of the United States.
Quiltingfool
@Betty: Retired teacher here. These names wouldn’t have been a problem for me. My problem was that sometimes I would call on a kid and my mind went blank and for the life of me I couldn’t remember their name!
I hated that about myself, but sometimes when you’ve got so much going on at once it happens.
It’s really bad when former students come up to you and start a conversation and you can’t remember who they are!
oldgold
Does anyone have any insight as to what is going on with the 4 missing US soldiers in Lithuania?
The Trump Administration is acting in a manner that makes me wonder if something is amok?
Baud
@oldgold:
I believe amok is SOP for the Trump administration.
Belafon
@montanareddog:
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Religious texts are deliberately vague and open to many interpretations.
prostratedragon
@Gin & Tonic: No, she’s there all right. Just stumbled uo on an autoplay, and you can see the men moving in a way that makes sense for KN’s surroundings.
Betty Cracker
@oldgold: I only know what I read in one of the major dailies yesterday, i.e., 4 soldiers went missing during a training exercise, and their heavy vehicle was found submerged in a swamp. Don’t know if bodies were recovered or if the vehicle didn’t contain any bodies and they’re looking for them now or what. We know from Trump 1.0 that none of them give a shit about servicemembers.
Harrison Wesley
@Betty Cracker: Axios had a report a couple hours ago with the same info, vehicle found submerged, no word on soldiers.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker:
Even the peacetime military can be dangerous. I wouldn’t read anything into it other than a training accident until there are more facts.
Geminid
@Jackie: As you probably know, Joe Kent’s the guy who lost two close elections (2022 & 2024) to Democrat Mary Gluesenkamp Perez.
The district is based in Clark Counnty, across the Columbia River from Portland and extends north into exurban and rural counties. Republican Jaime Herrera Butler represented WA03 for six terms but came in 3rd in the 2022 jungle primary sfter voting to impeach Trump in 2021.
Emily B.
It’s like Kristi Noem wants to be Madonna in a music video from 1991.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: I asked one of my co-workers who is extremely religious and loves FFOTUS (but admits he knows the guy isn’t a Christian) if he thought the Beatitudes were “woke”. He said, well not really but the way liberals interpret them they are! I couldn’t get any more info than that, but just wow, the ways people will fool themselves.
Citizen Alan
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I had that Joe Kent mixed up with a tea party loon named Joe who ran against Lisa Murkowski several cycles back. Glad you clarified! I wonder what became of the Alaskan nutjob? I’m confident he’s on the Trump train somewhere, maybe the caboose, who knows…
Citizen Alan
In point of fact, jesus said quite clearly in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) that there will be a lot of righteous people who did not know who he was but who lived according to his principles of ” doing for the least of these” who would be welcomed into heaven. And there would be lots of people who claimed to follow him and loudly preached his gospel to whom he would say ” depart, I never knew you” before condemning them to hell.
matt
Looking forward to the Abu Ghraib themed reality TV show.
Citizen Alan
@artem1s: refresh my memory. Didn’t Abu graib end with something like 3 enlisted nobody’s getting scapegoated with nobody else paying the slightest penalty?
YY_Sima Qian
Good question:
gvg
@Betty Cracker: The trucks are named for scenic mountain ranges. Why should they become off limits for any other use? I am barely aware of those trucks, but have a lot of nature calendars featuring the Sierra’s. Parents are Sierra club donors etc. There can be more than one way to react to names, more than one branding campaign with completely different lifestyles.
On the other hand I have seen a lot of problems caused by names and potential colleges or employers assumptions. I would recommend rigidly conventional names, not unique or trendy ones. Use nick names for personality.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt:
Who are you quoting (or paraphrasing)?
Figured I should ask before saying any more.
frosty
And Joe Biden and the Blues Brothers.
Geminid
@Geminid: In 2022 Marie Gluesenkamp Perez beat Joe Kent by 2600 votes out of 319,000 votes cast. In their 2024 rematch, Perez beat Kent by 16,000 votes out of 415,000 votes cast.
Before Perez was elected in 2022, her only elected post was board member of her local Soil and Water Conservation District.
Fun Washington 3rd CD facts: The district’s first Representative was Republican Miles Poindexter, elected in 1908. It was later represented by Democrat Dan Bonker. An interesting contrast.
Soprano2
@Quiltingfool: Hey, I wanted to tell you that I saw two new quilting stores in Springfield last night. They’re on S Kansas Expy in the shopping center behind the McDonald’s at Kansas and Battlefield. I don’t know if they’re new or have moved from somewhere else, but they appeared a week or two ago. I drive this stretch a lot on the way to the bar, that’s why I noticed them.
lowtechcyclist
CBS has the names of the 238 persons kidnapped by ICE and imprisoned at CECOT in El Salvador. I guess the Administration finally decided to provide that, at least.
jlowe
She’d look so much better in black, silver and double lightning bolts on the epaulettes.
Gin & Tonic
You needn’t click, but this Tweet includes a photo of JV Dance cosplaying with a gun:
“Doesn’t get more American than that” – except several people in the comments pointed out that the gun he’s holding is German.
How did we lost to these idiots?
jlowe
@gvg: As an urban bicyclist, I’m well aware of these trucks, to the point that they’ve all been designated as murder trucks. They’d all look so much better in flames.
JoyceH
@lowtechcyclist: This will be interesting. I’ve started to think that the administration deliberately hustled these guys out of the country without hearings that might prove they were wrongly detained because they KNEW a lot of them weren’t really gang members. A lot are going to turn out to be just tattooed Latinos that were gathered up to make the photo op more impressive.
Occurred to me the other day that these guys are the human equivalent of that clumsy Sharpie markup on the hurricane map – a stupid attempt to make one of Trump’s ridiculous statements look accurate in retrospect. Recall that during the campaign Trump repeatedly claimed that a Venezuelan gang had “taken over” Aurora Colorado. Well now when they wanted the triumph of deporting the gang, they didn’t have enough to look like a plausible force capable of taking over a town. So go grab the barber and the makeup artist. Hey, tattoos, amirite?
Jackie
@Gin & Tonic:
Apparently there’s more of FFOTUS’s beloved poorly educated than we were aware of?
Geminid
@Citizen Alan Brigadier General Janis Karpinski (Army Reserves) took part of the rap for the abuses at Abu Gharaib. She was relieved of command and demoted to Colonel in 2006.
General Karpinski was responsible for 15 detention fscilities in Iraq. From what I read in Cobra II (Gordon and Trainor 2006),* much of the responsibility for the scandal lay with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who “off ramped” most of the Military Police units the Army allocated to the invasion force. Then when the security problems in post-invasion Iraq manifested, the Army threw in military police– and contractors– willy-nilly and that laid the foundation for indiscipline and abuse.
* The authors of Cobra Ii were Michael Gordon, chief military correspondent for the New York Times and retired Marine general Bernard Trainor. Their collaboration was by far the best book I found on the Second Gulf War. The in-depth analysis of the planning and execution of the war made me believe, among other conclusions, that Don Rumsfeld was a fucking maniac.
trollhattan
Can we at least get thigh-high boots and a whip for this woman?
Prison tourism best tourism.
cope
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: When I began teaching high school in the late ’80s – early ’90s, one of my classes of 30 or so students had five Heathers.
trollhattan
@cope:
Remains one of the very best teen movies.
Juju
@Baud: I would have guessed you stopped wearing platform shoes with goldfish in them because it was hard to feed the fish.
There go two miscreants
Every now and then someone does an experiment where the identical resume and job application is sent out under both conventional names and names that are typically considered more likely to be Black. Every damn time the results are just what you’d expect: the conventional names get far more responses. (I haven’t seen any such studies with Hispanic names or other variations but there might be some.)
MoCaAce
@trollhattan:
there’s that frisson again…
🤮
Gloria DryGarden
@Sherparick: this thing about power lying- useful description, but jawdropping behavior
That the joint chief of staff from the pentagon would normally be part of such a war tactics discussion adds another layer to the signal gate problematics
JoeyJoeJoe
@Geminid: after Bonker, the district was represented by Jolene Unsoeld, one of the first openly atheist members of Congress. Before Bonker, it was represented by Julia Butler Hansen, who sponsored some of the major reforms in the House in the late 60s or early 70s.
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: I’m not sure the Joint Chiefs Chairman would normally be part of that discussion. If anyone, it would have been Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Gen. Michael Kurilla, since this was a CENTCOM operation.
But Kurilla would have known better than to sign on for a Signal chat. He was too busy anyway, coordinating the attack. Hedgseth and company were just kibbitzing.
satby
@Geminid: but I bet Kurilla is fucking furious.
Geminid
@JoeyJoeJoe: Rep. Hansen represented WA03 at a time when there were very few women in Congress.
Paul in KY
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Many, many things…
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: It might be skewed somehow. Maybe in ‘blue’ NY, alot of babies are being had by Lubavitcher Jewish types or something like that.
Paul in KY
@Spanky: True dat! Sadly…
Paul in KY
@Gin & Tonic: That would fit with her ‘brand’.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Episcopalian. That’s the denomination that runs/occupies it.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: Looks great! God bless you for doing that.
Paul in KY
@Eural Joiner: ‘Kill them all. The Lord will know his own…’
Paul in KY
@frosty: I like ray bans and I’m as anti-fascist as they come.
Paul in KY
@jlowe: You know she wishes she could wear that.
bluefoot
@There go two miscreants: I am having this experience right now trying to find a new place to live in the Boston area. My obviously not white last name has meant realtors cool off and then ghost me when I reach out to them by phone (I “sound white” when I talk) or I don’t get called back. Right now I’m hitting 20 for 20. I might be homeless in a couple of months, and that’s with an 800+ credit score and a good job.
zmulls
The photograph of Barrack 56 halfway down this page bears a sorry and remarkable resemblance to the Kristi Noem video
stiftung-gedenkstaetten.de/en/newsroom/downloadbereich-pressebilder/aufnahmen-kz-buchenwald
Miss Bianca
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m so old that I remember Sarah Palin chugging down her coffee and chatting with reporters while turkeys were being beheaded in the background. At the time, I just found the image laughably bizarre and obtuse – I had no idea it was a harbinger for things to come.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: It’s true, and it’s complicated – the old mayor of the town where my one-and-only foray into electoral politics (town council) took place was a died-in-the-wool Republican who was not above – to my shock and rage – lying about me and my fellow Dems who were running in order to cruise to victory (more harbingers of things to come…) He was my neighbor, and I felt betrayed.
But this was also the guy who was the head of the volunteer fire department, who held one of my hippie friends’ heads after he puked the first time he, as a member of the volunteer ambulance corps, got called to the scene of a bloody accident. This was a guy that I would absolutely have trusted to protect my life and property if called upon to do so.
Small towns. It’s easy to silo in a big city and only interact with people who share your beliefs and values. Not so much out in the sticks (as you know).
pluky
@Baud: The Bishop at the National Cathedral is Episcopalian.
pluky
@There go two miscreants: The tradition of changing or Anglicizing ‘ethnic’ names to improve marketability has a long history in this country. Hollywood alone represents a solid database for study.
Geminid
@pluky: One datum: Charles Bronson was named Charles Buchinsky. I saw him play a bit part under his real name, in an early 1950s TV Western.
glory b
@lowtechcyclist: The 8th amendment applies to all people, not just citizens.
sab
@Paul in KY: ” Occupies it”? They raised the money and built it. The government had nothing to do with it. It’s National because it’s in the District of Columbia.
Tehanu
Me too. Somewhere in Hell, Ilse Koch is grinding her teeth with envy.
Paul in KY
@bluefoot: I am so sorry that BS is happening to you. I hope things get better very quickly.
Paul in KY
@sab: Whatever. Poor choice of words I guess.