The Human Backdrop/ UPDATED

 

Kristi Noem, who has approached her job as head of DHS with what one might call "theatrical flair", made a video in an El Salvador prison. Keeping in mind that we are sending people into conditions like those behind her without due process--for reasons which the Trump Administration now alleges is a state secret. 

MAGA probably see the use of the human backdrop behind Noem a bit differently than I do. There is a gulf between seeing people being dehumanized and seeing them as not human. Someone like Noem does not grasp that difference. I wish more people in this country did. 

I like to point out that these MAGA airheads are inept, but they are also, nonetheless, fairly horrific. 

UPDATE: Just as a small clarification, if you go to her video on Twitter, the app formerly known as X, you can see this backdrop is actually a green screen with a looped video. The optics of dehumanization are very deliberate. 

UPDATE: That's a nice bit of hardware our girl has on her wrist--allegedly a $60K Rollie. I don't know what she paid for it or even that she DID pay for it (or how), but I just want to personally say I wouldn't wear my very nicest watch to the prison tour, so I'm guessing she must have nicer ones at home. 

UPDATE: Here's another story about who we're sending to a hellhole--a man waiting for an asylum hearing, Frengel Reyes Mota.

They are sending people not because they are proven gang members, but because they have tattoos, like Neri Alvarado, who has an "autism speaks" ribbon tattoo. I'm no Pete Hegseth, but I have tattoos, too and I am not a gang member. 

UPDATE: Want to see childish, petty and sick in a single image? This is real:

https://t.co/PVdINmsHXs pic.twitter.com/Bw5YUCI2xL

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 27, 2025

I know the White House isn't taking that down because those vibes, once again, are intentional. The cruelty is the point.