Charlie Angus: 'We see Kristi Noem doing this really disgusting video'

In January 2025, Kristi Noem was confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary.

And in March, here we are:

"This video, posted by Kristi Noem, provoked in me a visceral reaction. I hesitate to post this image because as a student of Holocaust studies, I know how even gazing on images like this can further the dehumanization of prisoners subjected to these conditions. But I also know that those who have the power to do something also have the obligation not to look away.

The juxtaposition of Noem, with her hair and makeup done in the latest Republican style, with earrings dangling and sporting a (reportedly) $60,000 Rolex, against the backdrop of men seized and detained without due process..." (Kristin Du Mez, Mar 27, 2025)

On March 28, Canadian lawmaker Charlie Angus said Canadians are paying attention as they are "watching our nearest neighbor slip into totalitarianism." He said, reported by HuffPost:

“When we see people being pulled off the streets, when we see people at universities being grabbed, detained, rendered and kidnapped, and when we see Kristi Noem doing this really disgusting video in front of half-naked men in an overcrowded El Salvadoran prison cell...We’re looking at a nation that we don’t understand anymore and we don’t want to be like that nation and we’re thinking, ‘If we go down the road with this regime, we’re talking about the disappearance of the rule of law.’”

She shot her dog

My poem: Cricket’s Still Alive: Out of the gravel pit, up into the light. Tucker Lieberman, May 7, 2024

And this happened:

Georgia considering laws to deal with kids who make threats

Georgia is discussing this legislation now:

”After last year’s deadly shooting at Apalachee High School, lawmakers vowed to ensure students could learn safely and get mental health support as needed. The House passed House Bill 268, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Holt Persinger who represents Barrow County, 159-13. It would instruct schools to create a plan identifying the ability for threats to breach the buildings.

The Senate passed Senate Bill 17, which would require local school systems to implement a panic alert system to coordinate between first responders in the event of an emergency. Senators also passed Senate Bill 61, which addresses children who make “terroristic threats,” and Senate Bill 179, which would require schools to quickly communicate about disciplinary problems with transferring students.

House Bill 268 is more likely to move forward, and lawmakers have amended the language — namely removing a provision that would have required schools to develop a database with information about students who have made credible threats.

And two bills that deal with school zone cameras that automatically ticket drivers who are speeding have been resurrected for consideration. One would ban the cameras, while another would give motorists more warning before they reach them.”

— Trans Georgians, school safety bills await their fate as state legislative session draws to a close, Maya T. Prabhu and Michelle Baruchman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 31, 2025

A memoir on this topic

Suspect by Gina Tron

Elon Musk is paying off Wisconsin voters

The organized anti-trans movement is propelled by extremists

If you're just noticing that organized transphobia is exterminationist and bad in other extremist ways, welcome.

"GOP operatives spent an astounding $222 million on anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ advertising in the 2024 cycle — more than on housing, immigration and the economy combined. Since Inauguration Day, the drumbeat of discriminatory actions and executive orders against trans Americans has made my heart race and kicked my anxiety into overdrive. The White House has refused to issue passports reflecting applicants’ gender identities, attacked providers of gender-affirming care, banned trans service members from the military, prevented schools from supporting students who transition, eliminated protections against spying on LGBTQ+ citizens, regulated bathroom use, benched trans kids from sports, transferred trans women into men’s prisons and targeted LGBTQ+ civil servants. It has also deleted references to trans and nonbinary people on government websites from the State Department and CDC to the Park Service’s page for the Stonewall National Monument."
— Ali Moss, "The Nazis Made A Horrifying Move In 1933. I'm Terrified Trump Is Now Doing The Exact Same Thing.: Until recently, the question remained theoretical. But it’s not an exaggeration to say that President Trump is running plays straight out of Hitler’s playbook." HuffPost, Mar 23, 2025

Zinnia Jones gave us some resources:

They don't always win, but this is what they try:

Read my essay too

Gay and Trans Freedom Is Everyone’s Freedom: Be who you are, choose your path, and let’s do it together. A big reason to support LGBTQ rights. Tucker Lieberman, Prism & Pen, Feb 22, 2024

March 2025 — climate news

Paris residents vote in favour of making 500 more streets pedestrian, Reuters, March 23, 2025

SEC votes to stop defending climate disclosure rule, Rachel Frazin, The Hill, 03/28/25

Signalgate!

Goldberg could be prosecuted, says Asha Rangappa, because "the Espionage Act makes no mention of “classified” information. It’s national defense information (NDI) which could cause harm to the U.S. if disclosed. Which it clearly was in this case, regardless of classification." Of course, "3 of the highest-ranking national security officials publicly stated none of it was officially classified," as someone else pointed out in a reply, which makes it a hard case to win.

‘Huge Screwup’: Republicans Give Group Chat Breach A Thumbs Down Emoji: "You got to know who you're sending your text to," one Republican advised after Pete Hegseth accidentally leaked classified information to a reporter. Igor Bobic, HuffPost, Mar 24, 2025

Atlantic Editor Names The 1 Thing He Struggled To Explain In Bombshell Group Chat Report: Jeffrey Goldberg reflected on the "most improbable" part of his reporting after he was inadvertently added to a group chat where Trump officials discussed war plans. Ben Blanchet, HuffPost, Mar 24, 2025

Dems Aghast After Trump Brass Accidentally Texted War Plans To Reporter: "Only one word for this: FUBAR," said Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.)., Ryan Grenoble, HuffPost, Mar 24, 2025

Warning over privacy of encrypted messages as Russia targets Signal Messenger: Russia is using phishing attacks to compromise encrypted Signal Messenger services used by targets in the Ukraine. Experts warn that other encrypted app users are at risk. Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly, 19 Feb 2025

Hillary Clinton Responds To Trump's Admin Using Signal To Discuss War Plans: Trump's administration included a journalist on a group text that discussed national security matters. Paige Skinner, HuffPost, Mar 24, 2025

Key things to know about the Senate hearing where top intel officials were grilled on group chat fallout. From CNN's Michael Williams, Hannah Rabinowitz, Ted Barrett, Alison Main Lauren Fox, Morgan Rimmer and Antoinette Radford. March 25, 2025

Reporter’s inclusion in Signal group chat was "of course not" appropriate, CIA director says. From CNN's Morgan Rimmer and Michael Williams, March 25, 2025

Mike Johnson Downplays Group Chat Leaks As 'Officials Doing Their Job,' Gets Torched On X. The House speaker told reporters Monday that Trump officials were merely "executing on a plan with precision," despite their messages going public. Marco Margaritoff, HuffPost, Mar 25, 2025

They were intentionally using Signal to avoid accountability for the discussion. If by chance any of them thought they were on Signal for other reasons, and they realized the discussion was not appropriate for Signal, they should have bowed out.

Trump Throws Absolute Fit Over 1 Simple Question: ‘Don’t Bring That Up Again’ The president’s critics urged reporters to ignore the demand and keep bringing it up. Ed Mazza, HuffPost, Apr 4, 2025

Under MAGA, there is no middle ground

With whom, on what point, would we negotiate? What (or whom) would we sacrifice, and what would we (those of us who remain) receive in return? Would we receive even a bit more time?

No middle ground:

"'There is no middle ground anymore,' an elderly woman said to what appeared to be her husband near the back of the crowd (Monday's gathering skewed older and female, with young men nowhere to be found unsurprisingly).

It was comments like these that differentiated this action with the rallies in the first months of the first Trump term. There was a (misplaced, deeply naive) sense that Trump was such an outlier, so out of touch with the electorate, that Democrats and even some elected Republicans would stymie his entire agenda. This Sorinkesque belief in the inevitability to bipartisanship was just enough to make folks believe there was a middle ground, a compromised path out of Trumpism. We tried that with Joe Biden and it failed spectacularly. There is, as the lady said, no middle ground. The only way out is through; what that looks like is up to your imagination and the doom that resides within you."

— Denny Carter, "Long Way From A Fire," Bad Faith Times, 18 Feb 2025

That "doom" story says:

"We are not “cooked,” nor are we “so fucking cooked," as so many BlueSky posters are wont to say. There is no point in declaring we're "cooked" beyond protecting oneself with layer after slimy, toxic layer of irony. I’ve done just that for too long. No one is better than me at shielding themselves with irony. I realize this sounds Trumpian but it's true. If irony-shielding were a profession, I would be the GOAT and no one would be close. I’m done with all that because there is no future with such an approach, and it’s exactly what the bad guys want us to do. Enough."

— Denny Carter, "Caring, Not Dooming, In 2025," Bad Faith Times, 24 Dec 2024

Trumpists call the anti-Tesla protests "terrorist" to take away donation platforms

Martina Fern, Senior Director of Development for American Atheists, writes in an email that the organization sent today:

"Elon Musk, who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect President Trump, expressed his support for federal investigations into fundraising platform ActBlue, claiming it’s part of a “left-wing NGO cabal” organizing protests of Tesla. He even called the protests “terrorist activity.”

Speaker Mike Johnson and several Republican lawmakers have been pushing for a congressional investigation into ActBlue since last December. More recently, the Treasury Secretary has been urged to look into the fundraising platform for “allegations of the provision of… payment processing for terror-linked organizations and nonprofits.” Senator Ted Cruz has also suggested ActBlue might be held criminally liable and has threatened another private tech company that provides services to nonprofits, Bonterra, with investigations."

Fern adds that the ActBlue and Bonterra platforms, both of which American Atheists uses, "are being threatened precisely because they provide the infrastructure necessary for nonprofit organizations like ours to operate." If Trump's orbit can say that one left-leaning cause is a "terrorist" cause, then they have a pretext to take down the large donation platforms that fund a broad spectrum of left-leaning causes.

One core political function of calling someone a terrorist is that, in the United States as well as other places, you can seek to have the government shut them down on the basis of you having called them that. I wrote: Why Was Palestinian Student Leader Mahmoud Khalil Detained?: The meaning of ‘shalom’ I know is ‘peace.’ A political arrest isn’t peaceful. Tucker Lieberman, Mar 12, 2025

Photo: Smug January 6er. So much winning.

Two trans songs on Instagram — enjoy!

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A post shared by 🅑 🅞 🅨 🅙 🅡. (@boyjrofficial)

Detention of Mahmoud Khalil

I wrote:
Tucker Lieberman, Why Was Palestinian Student Leader Mahmoud Khalil Detained? The meaning of ‘shalom’ I know is ‘peace.’ A political arrest isn’t peaceful. Medium, Mar 12, 2025

Here's follow-up info over the past week:

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The Disappearance of Mahmoud Khalil: Civil rights attorney Edward Ahmed Mitchell and journalist Meghnad Bose discuss the profound implications Khalil’s case raises for free speech and due process. The Intercept Briefing (📢 podcast), March 13 2025

Why Trump Is So Desperate to Keep Mahmoud Khalil in Louisiana: Government lawyers would be happy to avoid a legal precedent set in the case of Ravi Ragbir during the first Trump administration. Shawn Musgrave, The Intercept, March 14 2025

If pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli protests is considered a form of terrorism, then anti-Musk protests will be considered terrorism too. Trump has said so.

Scoop: State Dept. to use AI to revoke visas of foreign students who appear "pro-Hamas", Marc Caputo, Axios, Mar 6, 2025

Khalil Gibran Muhammad on LinkedIn: three federal agencies sent a letter to Columbia University that lays out conditions for future federal funds.

A Love Letter to the Student Movement Repression of the Palestine movement is now here, so what must be done? Four practical steps for the next phase. Carrie Zaremba, In These Times, March 17, 2025

"Hundreds of Jewish professors, scholars and students have signed a letter condemning the Trump administration for canceling $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University and threatening other universities."
— Matt Shuham, Hundreds Of Jewish Academics Condemn Trump Attacks On Universities: “The knock-on effects of this will be catastrophic,” one co-author told HuffPost. HuffPost, Mar 19, 2025

2,500 Jewish Academics Call Out Trump: Over 2,500 Jewish academics and students denounce Trump for cynical claims of antisemitism. Arturo Dominguez, Medium, March 20, 2025

Columbia University Caves After Threats From Trump Columbia University agreed to implement a suite of policy changes Friday, including overhauling its rules for protests. AP, HuffPost, Mar 21, 2025

Now this is happening

University Of Alabama Student Detained By Federal Immigration Agents. The Trump administration is continuing to target noncitizen university students. Marita Vlachou, HuffPost, Mar 27, 2025

Khalil was able to dictate an essay:

"Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil rebuked what he called the school’s “repression playbook” that has opened the gates for higher education and the federal government to target dissent on campus and abduct students like him for their pro-Palestinian advocacy.

Khalil, a green card holder married to a U.S. citizen, was taken by federal immigration agents on March 8 for his role in helping lead last year’s antiwar protests on Columbia’s campus. While his court case plays out in New Jersey, Khalil remains held without charge in a Louisiana detention center — where he dictated to his attorney a searing op-ed for the Columbia Spectator that published Friday [April 4]."

— Sanjana Karanth, Mahmoud Khalil Rebukes Columbia For Targeting Dissent With 'Repression Playbook', HuffPost, April 6, 2025

US Is Quietly Revoking Student Visas From Harvard to Stanford, Alicia A. Caldwell, Yahoo Finance, April 7, 2025

Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs, Jake Offenhartz, AP, April 10, 2025