Music: Electric Light Orchestra "Evil Woman" Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security (which is control of ICE), is not a good person. You can easily google her ethical violations but her actions as head of Homeland Security has truly defined her true nature and character. Secretary Noem proudly posed in front of the newly deported inmates at the El Salvador Mega-Prison (men who had all been denied their constitutional right to due process and sent to a prison where they will be further tortured and terrorized). Secretary Noem has gleefully continued this process of kidnapping men and woman without any regard to our laws or to common decency and respect. Imagine if it was President Obama who had sent masked Federal agents into our cities and neighborhoods to terrorize families and communities? Many immigrants and citizens have been harmed by these armed masked men and when Renee Nicole Good was murdered by one of these masked agents on January 7th; Noem immediately branded the dead 37 year old citizen a "terrorist," all before actually knowing anything about the situation or actual facts of this dreadful crime. As Governor of South Dakota, Noem funneled campaign donations into her own pocket and used the Governor's office to gain financial advantages for her daughter. Ethically, and morally, she is a corrupt person. She even shot her own dog and wrote about it in a book, as if it was something to brag about. When Kristi Noem was asked, in a Senate hearing, for the definition of habeas corpus, she answered that ”habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country;” she not only displayed a breathtaking ignorance of the knowledge required to perform her duties; she also underpinned the current administration’s attempt to subvert the very nature of the Constitution and this government. By framing her answer to imply that habeas corpus is some right of the President, she has placed his office beyond that of the executive into the realm of imperial. This administration, with Noem's help, has displayed a massive level of ignorance and unwillingness to follow the laws of this country because their desire is to reinterpret the Constitution into a more dictatorial form, and not a "benevolent" one. The administration's legal acts of piracy and the threatening of violence against our allies have demonstrated the very nature of imperialism these criminals are pursuing. The Senate exchange about habeas corpus and due process (between Secretary Noem and Senator Maggie Hassan) was the impetus for me painting this Ben & Jerry's work. For the video, I chose ELO's song "Evil Woman" because, well, I believe you can guess.

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#painting #portrait #kristinoem #ice #reneegood #reneenicolegood #minnesota #homelandsecurity #minneapolis