thewhitepages.net/p/pander-at-...
05.03.2026 21:03
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went to this community organizing thing a bit ago and ended up on a variety of signal chats and like. wow. how does one keep up with all this while being employed? i’m glad there are folks who can do all that, but man. i burn all my energy just getting through the day. there is nothing left.
Don't go searching for OP, leave them alone. I just think that what they uplift is important and explains why many people simply cannot engage in activism and organizing regularly. And the truth is that it's hard to figure out actual ways around this because organizing in fact a labor.
If you're interested, here are three pieces I wrote about Noem over the years (I read both of her books! and not just the dog shooting parts!)
thewhitepages.net/p/long-befor...
As for Noem (after this next gig)... I mean, why does Newsmax exist if not for a cushy landing spot for this exact human being. I can guarantee she won't return to South Dakota in any real way. Everybody there (Ds and Rs) agrees that for all her talk, she never loved that state or her neighbors.
... that's all to say. It IS a very good thing that there's increasing evidence that the U.S. is rejecting the AESTHETICS of fascism. But this next stage of opposition is going to be trickier, I fear. All the same damage, but potentially fewer viral headlines to rally short term emotions.
...and as folks can tell you in Minneapolis, that does create a challenge for solidarity efforts. When there's a lower volume of big dumb photos and videos of folks like Noem and Bovino preening like cartoon Nazis, public attention does wane, but people still get disappeared, targeted, etc..
...their current reign of terror, but just with fewer photo ops...
... as was the case w/ Bovino's departure from MPLS (alongside rhetoric about the surge ending, which it hasn't), I worry that casting Noem to the shadows (importantly- not firing her; she retains a cushy job) is a sign, not that the admin is going to back down, but that they will continue...
...so the new stars of the Trump 2.0 have been, until very recently, folks with a particular predilection for the dictatorial photo op (Noem, Bovino, Vance). So what's changed? Our opposition to performative cruelty has been more sustained and effective than they expected! Which is very good! BUT...
...you know, the classic "manufacture a mandate through the aesthetic presentation of strength/callousness" fascist move. Authoritarianism plus stagecraft. Noem's not a true believer in the former (I say that not as a compliment, she believes in nothing) but she excels at the latter...
... was such that she was still useful to what this regime THOUGHT its play was going to be this time around. Remember a year ago, all the talk about mandates and vibe shifts... the plan was to clearly do the worst possible things to human beings, loudly, and pose for pictures while doing it...
Her job, for a decade now, has been to precisely calibrate her rhetoric/politics to what she thought not just the MAGA base but a plurality of Americans want. And while she whiffed that once (she clearly thought the dog story would make her look tough), her function in the MAGA narrative...
And it worked (mostly)! She recognized correctly that there was an opening in MAGA world for somebody who could craft herself as both beauty queen and super tough cowgirl (never mind that she comes from the flat farm half of SD, not the rugged ranchy part)...
The thing you need to know about Kristi Noem is that everything that makes her an easy left-liberal lightning rod (the constant photo ops, the aesthetic embodiment of Trumpian womanhood, the Taylor Sheridan-scripted Western revisionist worldview) was both very deliberate and her sole career plan...
Thoughts on Noem, as somebody who has spent more time than I'd like to admit writing about her self-presentation/ rise from South Dakota. In a lot of ways her firing has no real implications on this regime's actions, but it is symbolically meaningful, in a way that actually makes me nervous...
“The gatherings can spend their time [however] feels right (a party, a potluck, an organizing meeting, a neighborhood clean-up, a space for mourning, a dodgeball tournament). …participants will talk about what commitments they want to make—both to each other + to a whole nation of caring neighbors.”
❤️ ❤️
This is what being a neighbor looks like
It was a wildly circulated image in aftermath of the bombing of the girls' school this weekend. I switched it out, though, because it was giving AI vibes. While not confirmed as AI (as far as I can tell), that's my suspicion. Same essay here, new pic:
thewhitepages.net/p/you-will-n...
Read this and then call your congresspeople.
I don't hate this war because it wasn't "authorized properly," or because I am not a fan of the specific President waging it. I hate this war because it is a war.
thewhitepages.net/p/you-will-n...
Sup chat this is Slouching Towards Bethlehem with your boy The Rough Beast, and it looks like today’s stream could be a big one, as some of you might’ve already seen there are rumors going around social media that the hour has come round at last, so we’re gonna get right into it
"abolish ice" does in fact require defunding the police because they are the same system causing harm.
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
Whose big dumb heart decided it would be a good idea to host (at least) 50 gatherings in 50 different states over the course of the next year? Mine. But maybe your big dumb heart wants to be a part of it
thewhitepages.net/p/hop-in-gat...
www.jsonline.com/story/news/l...
An absolutely gut wrenching story, showing a real hero doing what she can to help people. We need more people like Denise Flaherty.
I identify wholeheartedly with this!
Whoa. Really touched by Alysa Liu’s reaction to my Olympics essay thewhitepages.net/p/you-too-de...
You know how they fly flags half mast when something sad happens? Could we fly every flag in Wisconsin quadruple mast today? Like, just keep erecting taller and taller flagpoles, all the way up to the sun? HAPPY WE'RE ALMOST RID OF ROBIN VOS DAY, WISCONSIN!
Milwaukee’s Summerfest is the best music festival in the world because it’s the most populist music festival in the world (price, amenities, ease of access, diversity of crowd and artists). That’s true every year, but never more than this absolutely pristine Whoomp/Who Let pairing.
