the name DHS was notably fashy at the time, not at all reassuring. “domestic security” was the conventional phrase for its function then. “homeland” was pawned off as a GW Bush homespun folksiness but many of us understood it as intentionally blurring lines against fascism. now here we are. 1/

“homeland” wasn’t in common usage at all, it felt weird and foreign. (“the heartland” was a common expression, but it implies a geographic subset of the country, so wouldn’t make sense as the H in DHS.) /fin