Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

No one could have predicted…

The National Guard is not Batman.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

This fight is for everything.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

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Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Pete & Joe

Pete & Joe

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First Pete.  it’s a 5-minute interview, but it’s totally worth it.  This video should be in the dictionary as the example of  “good government”.

Then Joe.  The sly fox.   (Politico)

The Biden administration last month secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine for the first time in the two-year war — and Kyiv has already used the weapon twice to strike deep behind Russian lines.

In March, the U.S. quietly approved the transfer of a number of Army Tactical Missile Systems with a range of nearly 200 miles, said a senior Biden administration official and two U.S. officials, allowing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces to put at risk more Russian targets inside Ukrainian sovereign territory.

The administration will include additional long-range ATACMS in a new $1 billion package of military aid President Joe Biden approved on Wednesday, one of the U.S. officials said.

The provision of the long-range version of the ATACMS ends a lengthy drama in which Ukraine clamored for years to receive the weapon, driving a wedge between Washington and Kyiv. The U.S. quietly sent the medium-range version of the missile in October, but Ukraine continued to press for a weapon that would allow it to strike farther behind Russia’s lines.

The U.S. on Wednesday announced a new $1 billion package of weapons that will quickly be transferred to Ukraine now that Biden has signed off on the long-delayed foreign aid bill that passed the Senate this week. Among other weapons, the tranche will include Stinger anti-aircraft missiles for air defense; 155mm artillery rounds; Bradley Fighting Vehicles; Javelin anti-tank systems; and Claymore anti-personnel munitions, according to a Pentagon press release.

But totally straight forward!

The U.S. was initially reluctant to send ATACMS — even under sustained domestic and international pressure — due to stockpile concerns and fear of escalating the war. But Russia’s increasingly brutal tactics and more American production of the long-range version convinced Biden to authorize the transfer.

The Biden administration warned Russia that attacking Ukraine’s energy grid and using North Korean-provided missiles would lead the U.S. to reconsider sending ATACMS to Ukraine. Those strikes continued, leading top officials — national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown — to unanimously recommend the weapons transfer.

The Biden administration believes providing ATACMS can give Ukraine some new momentum in the two-year war, forcing Russia to move back critical command and control nodes and other high-value targets such as aviation assets, said the second U.S. official.

Republicans still haven’t figured out that bluster is not strength.  Possibly a good part of why so many people underestimate Pete and Joe.

.

Oh, and a bonus truth from Simon Rosenberg.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

206Comments

  1. 1.

    Jackie

    Pete Buttigieg will be President in ‘36 – after Kamala’s two terms!

    ETA OH MY GOSH! I beat Baud!!!

  3. 3.

    Albatrossity

    The Rs are aided by the mainstream press in their mission to use student protests as a wedge issue. THe rhetoric “Protests turn violent” disguises the nuance that they were not violent until the cops showed up. And yet “protests turn violent” seems to be on the lips and in the headlines for every mainstream media outlet.

  5. 5.

    TBone

    Alyssa Farah xit (links to what she responded to without having to click)

    susiemadrak.com/2024/04/26/i-know-i-do/

    I was in the Oval Office with Trump when he said a WH staffer he believed leaked an embarrassing story about him should be executed. We may want to take this line of argument from Trump’s attorney extremely seriously.

  6. 6.

    TBone

    susiemadrak.com/2024/04/26/sure-thatll-happen/

    Ben Lorber xit (video at link)

    On last night’s livestream, Christian nationalist organizers of today’s ‘United for Israel’ march at Columbia explained that they’re actually excited about rising antisemitism: it’s a sign the End Times is near & Jews will convert to Christianity. Rally leader Sean Feucht:

  7. 7.

    LAO

    Have we discussed Noem killing her own 14 month old dog yet? I miss a lot of things on here.

  10. 10.

    LAO

    Oh, and all of the criminal charges have been dropped against the UT Austin protestors. So, some good news. I guess.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    @LAO: I was really torn this morning about including that in a post.

    She hated the dog and shot and killed it.  She used the “he needed killing defense”, though she didn’t use those exact words.

    WARNING

    The part that simultaneously broke my heart and made me want to vomit is that she got her gun and walked the dog to the gravel pit, where she shot and killed her dog.

    END OF WARNING

    All i have is rage and tears, no words.

  13. 13.

    Sister Golden Bear

    FTFNYT, chef’s kiss edition:

    President Joe Biden participated in a surprise live interview on Friday with radio host Howard Stern, the latest example of the White House favoring media personalities and nontraditional outlets ahead of the president’s reelection.

    Also too, Republicans are horrible people, part infinity:

    Reaching for an example of her unflinching preparedness to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” if it needs to be done, Kristi Noem landed on a chilling example: the time she killed her pet dog, Cricket, in an execution-style gravel pit slaying.

    Sweet Jeebus…

    WARNING – ANIMAL CRUELTY

    “Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” the South Dakota governor writes in a new book, adding that the dog, a female, had an “aggressive personality” and needed to be trained to be used for hunting pheasant.

    By taking Cricket on a pheasant hunt with older dogs, Noem says, she hoped to calm the young dog down and begin to teach her how to behave. Unfortunately, Cricket ruined the hunt, going “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life”.

    “I hated that dog,” Noem writes, adding that Cricket had proved herself “untrainable”, “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”. Noem got her gun, then led Cricket to a gravel pit. “It was not a pleasant job,” she writes, “but it had to be done.”

    Incredibly, Noem’s tale of slaughter is not finished. [Note: This occurred just after the dog killing.]

    Her family, she writes, also owned a male goat that was “nasty and mean”, because it had not been castrated. Furthermore, the goat smelled “disgusting, musky, rancid” and “loved to chase” Noem’s children, knocking them down and ruining their clothes.

    Noem decided to kill the unnamed goat the same way she had just killed Cricket the dog. But though she “dragged him to a gravel pit”, the goat jumped as she shot and therefore survived the wound. Noem says she went back to her truck, retrieved another shell, then “hurried back to the gravel pit and put him down”.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    @LAO: So glad to see you hear again in the past few days.  Shortly before you appeared, I thought about writing a “I were LAO was here” comment, but I didn’t want to offend any of our other attorney peeps, so I didn’t.

    But maybe you sensed that?  :-)

  16. 16.

    wjca

    The Biden administration last month secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine for the first time in the two-year war — and Kyiv has already used the weapon twice to strike deep behind Russian lines.

    It really is amusing.  The Biden administration gets flack for months for failing to do something that they have already done.  But didn’t talk about for the most utterly obvious of security concerns and to keep the Russians from moving back assets before they can be targeted.

    Then Ukraine uses a couple of the new weapons . . . and the “experts” tie themselves in knots trying to figure out how they did it with “domestically produced weapons.”  While confidently saying that obviously whatever it was is in short enough supply that those couple of attacks can’t be duplicated.

    And then we find out what really happened.  Duh-oh.

  18. 18.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Albatrossity:

    THe rhetoric “Protests turn violent” disguises the nuance that they were not violent until the cops showed up.

    Well, that’s an old, familiar situation.

  20. 20.

    Anonymous At Work

    I disagree with Simon.  The Rs will inflame the protests so they can send in the sturmtroopers.  That their Leader is on trial is just serendipity.

  21. 21.

    jimmiraybob

    “…who is a rapist, a serial criminal, a fraudster, a betrayer of the country and the ugliest political thing we’ve ever seen?”

     

    I don’t know.  Too glowing.  That sentence should be several hundred words longer.

  23. 23.

    Jackie

    @rikyrah: Maybe we could ask Adam Schiff to convince Biden to do a zoom interview with us!😁

    We would be respectful and mostly well-behaved!🙄

  26. 26.

    jimmiraybob

    @LAO: “Have we discussed Noem killing her own 14 month old dog yet? I miss a lot of things on here.”

    Trump & Puppy Murderer 2025.

  27. 27.

    Jackie

    @LAO: I don’t want to think about it – much less discuss it. It made me sick to my stomach just reading the headline. I definitely didn’t read it.😡😢

  28. 28.

    Mousebumples

    bsky.app/profile/joshuajfriedman.com/post/3kr2gd4gcwq2q (must be logged in to click through)

    Maine House majority leader warns Nebraska: If you change your system now to deprive Omaha’s Biden voters of their electoral vote, we’ll have to change our system to deprive rural Mainers of their Trump vote

    POST IMG ALT TEXT –

    As the legislative session winds down here in Maine, several constituents have asked about the potential electoral shenanigans in Nebraska and how that might relate to Maine, which has a similar method of awarding electoral votes. Here is my statement:

    “Voters in Maine and voters in Maine’s 2nd congressional district value their

    independence, but they also value fairness and playing by the rules. If Nebraska’s Republican Governor and Republican-controlled Legislature were to change their electoral system this late in the cycle in order to unfairly award Donald Trump an additional electoral vote, I think the Maine Legislature would be compelled to act in order to restore fairness to our country’s electoral system. It is my hope and the hope of my colleagues in Maine that the Nebraska Republican Party decides not to make this desperate and ill-fated attempt to sway the 2024 election.” – Maureen Terry, Maine House Majority Leader

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @LAO:

    Indiana University changed the rules for assembly the day before that particular group of speakers were set to assemble.

    Clownish. I mean, make SOME effort to hide that this is about supressing content. I hope they sue. The university will lose. Why are they so bad at this? Who told them treating their students like enemies was a good idea?

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jackie:

    Another mind-meld! I was going to write essentially the same thing.

    Semi-serious query: should Kamala pick Pete as her VP in 2028, or should he run for a congressional seat (either chamber) or governorship or something? Asking this without checking the specifics of what in Michigan may come available when — I’m just wondering theoretically what might best enhance his résumé.

    (Thinking out loud … maybe some international post for a few years.)

  32. 32.

    trollhattan

    @TBone: ​
    Wonder how many times Trump said, “What do you mean, ‘I can’t‘?” to somebody on his staff?

  37. 37.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @WaterGirl: Tell Schiff that we’ll do a fundraiser to replace his luggage that was stolen in a San Francisco car break-in. 

    Hello to the city, goodbye to your luggage. That was Senatorial candidate Adam Schiff’s rude introduction to San Francisco’s vexing reputation for car burglaries Thursday when thieves swiped the bags from his car while it sat in a downtown parking garage.

    He was warned not to leave anything in the car, but he was in a hurry. Yeah, not really funny, but he’s quite familiar with SF, so the locals are having a bit of grim humor with him making such a rookie mistake.

    FWIW, although car burglaries are a real problem (albeit mostly in tourist areas) they did drop significantly Q1.

  41. 41.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Matt McIrvin: Indeed.  As mayor Daley noted back in 1968, “The police weren’t there to create disorder, they were there to preserve disorder.”

  43. 43.

    Eduardo

    @rikyrah: About that, I went to YouTube to find Biden teasing the FNYT with giving the Pitchbot an interview but all I saw is the full Biden speech at the WH correspondent dinner.

    Anybody has a link to a shorter video with the teasing on it?

  44. 44.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl: @Sister Golden Bear:

    While there’s literally nothing to be added, I have to pile on because we have a short-haired, not wire-haired pointer who’s smart, lovable, loyal (except he’d leave us in a heartbeat for dogsitter Kelly), occasionally naughty because dogs, that we bought from a breeder who trains gun dogs. AKC and all that bother.

    And boy, does he point.

    The very idea of this fine breed being disposable, cruelly so, is galling beyond comprehension. YES you have to take time to train them. YES you have to know HOW to train them. They have boundless energy (ask me how I know) that MUST be guided. Guidance is not kicking them and yelling, just to be clear.

    Fuck me sideways, I just can’t even with this woman.

  45. 45.

    MinuteMan

    @TBone:

    If the Extreme Court imperious enshrined presidential  immunity we can expect that a second term for Putin’s Putscher to result in an epidemic of people falling from upper Story windows.

  46. 46.

    wjca

    @Kay: Why are they so bad at this? Who told them treating their students like enemies was a good idea?

    Probably just that they’re too young to remember how it worked out in the late 60s.  For them, it’s merely one more piece of history.  Perhaps their schooling didn’t cover it….

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @wjca:

    Probably just that they’re too young to remember how it worked out in the late 60s.

     
    Decades of Republican dominance?

  49. 49.

    Another Scott

    @LAO: That’s bad enough.  :-(

    Google tells me she talked about it in her forthcoming book.

    “I have animals, but don’t know how to train or care for them, so I kill them when they annoy me.  I’m a proud, tough, dog and goat killer.  Vote for me!!”??

    Is that the message??!

    I wonder what other juicy tidbits about the way she interacts with family members (and others) are in there…

    But not enough to buy or read it, of course.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    RaflW

    @LAO:

    Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social
    Trump/Noem 2024: They’ll Kill Who Needs Killin’

    There’s a ton of MAGAs who proclaim they love their dogs in their social media profiles. But they’ll all find a way to excuse or even celebrate Noem.

    Because the GOP is a death cult.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @wjca:

    “Yes, this is a time place and manner restriction. We’re not suppressing content! We just happened to put new rules in right before this specific topic came up for discussion”.

    The students should sue. They’ll win.

  54. 54.

    KrackenJack

    @Baud: ​
      Should we pull the Biden / Harris lever with our right hand? Left hand? Both hands?

    (I do miss the old-fashioned voting machines.)

  58. 58.

    TBone

    @rikyrah: repost from downstairs.

    As an aside, when hubby was answering questions when he was admitted to ICU after surgery, I was there and the nurse asked if he had any religious or cultural preferences, to which he replied, simply,  “No.” Yesterday, before his breakfast and I finally arrived on scene, a nun appeared to administer communion.  So his first solid food was a communion wafer.  Apparently, way back when, he put Catholic on one of his forms?  He is lapsed but said it comforted him nonetheless.  I noticed they pulled that when they knew I wouldn’t be there… it’s not comforting for me to know he got a nun before any solid food.

  61. 61.

    Jackie

    @WaterGirl: I scrolled past lickity spit.

    I hope even TIFG knows that was a bridge too far for her VP aspirations. ALL dog lovers won’t vote for her.

  62. 62.

    wjca

    @SiubhanDuinne: should Kamala pick Pete as her VP in 2028, or should he run for a congressional seat (either chamber) or governorship or something?

    I’m seriously conflicted.  On one hand, I’d like that ticket.  On the other hand, I’ve seen too often that how much change the average voter can tolerate at a time is quite limited.

    Rather as Obama picked totally non-threatening to moderate sensibilities Biden for VP, Harris would probably be well advised to do something similar.  There are probably a couple of old, white, straight, male Senators who would fill the bill.  Irritating as hell that Pete being gay matters.  But, electorally, for now it still does.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Probably because it’s difficult. But this has to be in their wheelhouse! They have to get better at political speech and debate. This panicked “shut all speech we don’t like DOWN” response is not a good example to set for students.

    They only have about a month of school left. Can the adults running things manage to regain their composure, or are they planning on freaking out for the whole rest of the term?

  65. 65.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay:  What is funny (in a sick way) is that these students are the universities’ future donor base.  Talk about eating the seed corn.

  66. 66.

    wjca

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: In my experience with higher education, good administration is rarer than good teaching or good research. I don’t know why.

    Because administration is an entirely different skill set from teaching or research.  But senior university administrators have to start out doing the former.  It’s actually somewhat surprising that so many are as good as they are anyway.

  68. 68.

    TBone

    @Harrison Wesley: I have an original 1968 Life Magazine convention issue.  Really sticks it to the cops with all the photographic glory and accompanying prose (with actual receipts) that Life is known for.

  69. 69.

    TBone

    @Omnes Omnibus: can attest

    Mom taught, Dad taught (after retiring from being a cop), I worked for attorneys who also worked for cops and teachers.  I heard it all.

  70. 70.

    wjca

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s also why law firm management is often abysmal.

    IT firm management, too.

    Clearly there is an unmet need for a training course in administration targeted at fields where executives are expected to come from totally unrelated backgrounds.

    And, just for the record, Business Administration is demonstrably NOT it.

  72. 72.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @TBone: @Omnes Omnibus:
    It’s similar in tech. It’s a stereotype that engineers choose that field because they’re better with machines than with people. Yet they are promoted to management with little to no training. The results are often what you might expect.

  74. 74.

    Eduardo

    @wjca:

    Rather as Obama picked totally non-threatening to moderate sensibilities Biden for VP

    Obama also presented himself as totally non-threatening to moderate sensibilities — picking Biden was just part of it.

  76. 76.

    Fake Irishman

    @wjca:

    I’ll observe that one of the wisest things Dave Anderson has said on this blog was when some one jokingly said he should be running HHS. He responded in all seriousness that he would be a terrible administrator and was at his best as a scholar and ideas person on a larger team.

  77. 77.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Manyakitty:

    Exactly.

    What happens when she gets mad at one of her kids?

    ETA: “Kassidy, if you don’t finish your carrots we’re going to take a walk to the gravel pit.”

  79. 79.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Yeah, I think we’re blithely assuming here that the purpose isn’t to cause mass violence and serve as a pretext for the coming age of the fist.

  81. 81.

    frosty

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​Oddly enough, of the three engineering firms I worked at, only one had abysmal management. The public sector IT and Public Works departments? Abysmal. Well, DPW was marginally better than IT.​

  82. 82.

    Another Scott

    We’ve got a good bench.  Let’s see what happens, and work for a good future in November.

    Meanwhile, on the lighter side…

    [email protected]:

    Nearly 20 years ago, I made a Craigslist post looking for a roommate.

    This guy named Justin responded saying he wasn’t looking for a roommate, but he liked my ad and the interests and music I’d listed and thought we might make good friends.

    I ended up exchanging a series of emails with him and he was really cool and interesting.

    At some point, I asked for his last name and he said it was Franchi, so, being the absolute creep that I am, I googled his name and came up with a series of articles and bulletins about how Justin Franchi was wanted by the FBI for terrorism.

    […]

    !!!

    It’s a good story.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  83. 83.

    scav

    @wjca: Because administration is an entirely different skill set from teaching or research.  But senior university administrators have to start out doing the former.  It’s actually somewhat surprising that so many are as good as they are anyway.

    On the other hand, what we seem to have here is a problem in the other direction.  University administrators following abjectly the preferences of large donors and political / media pressures while ignoring educational traditions about dispute, free-speech etc.  Even the humorous bit about students being the seed-corn of future donors indicates how far university administration has drifted from seeing students as people to be assisted to an education rather that current small-dollar and future big-dollar pockets to be plumbed.

  84. 84.

    cain

    @Jackie: lol – Biden doing a sit down interview with John Cole and DougJ would be hilarious and a further burn to the New York Times. We’d call it “Cole and the Pitchbot”

  85. 85.

    JPL

    @LAO: I don’t know if it was discussed but she didn’t stop there.   She killed a few horses and a goat also.

  86. 86.

    Soprano2

    You know, I was told repeatedly right on this very blog that Ukraine would never get any more assistance from the U.S. because the Republicans wouldn’t allow it and Joe Biden totally screwed up when he didn’t get a lot more money for them in 2022. Look how that turned out – it was late, but it happened.

  87. 87.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    I remember that Every.Single.Column Gail Collins wrote during the 2012 campaign worked in some reference to the Romney-dog-on-roof-of-car story. Sometimes it was front and center, sometimes just a fleeting mention. It became a kind of game to see how she would manage to haul it into an otherwise unrelated opinion piece. It was like looking for “NINA”s in Al Hirschfeld’s drawings.

  88. 88.

    scav

    @JPL: Any chapter on her pest-management strategy of pulling wings off flies?  Gotta tick all the paperwork boxes for conservative leadership qualifications before the critical swimsuit round.

  89. 89.

    New Deal democrat

    OT, but I didn’t want to wait until next Wednesday’s COVID update for this:

    The CDC just updated their hospitalizations and death counts, and last week hospitalizations were the lowest for any week since the start of the pandemic over 4 years ago.

    Deaths probably also made an all time weekly low last week or this week, but we won’t know until those are fully updated 3 or 4 weeks from now.

  91. 91.

    Bupalos

    @LAO: Jesus. Y’all thirsty for this one. You’re like the 7th person I’ve seen on liberal blogs clamoring for a separate post for this non-story to salivate over. That’s  called algorithmic capture.

    That is not a story. It’s you thirsty for “tell me my opponents aren’t human.” The blogs WILL oblige because INCREASE INTERACTION.

    Everyone catch the dynamic here? In a post about “here is our side, doing good!” there are requests for “No tell me an interpretive story about their side, doing bad things, preferably in a cartoonish way that makes them into cartoons! I want THAT!!”

  93. 93.

    JPL

    @scav:  Unfortunately that means that trump will probably choose Elise Stefanik for VP.     Her motto will be I only kill democrats not animals.

  94. 94.

    Spanky

    @TBone:

    it’s not comforting for me to know he got a nun before any solid food.

    Yeah, there’s no meat on those old bags at all.

  95. 95.

    JCJ

    @wjca:  I dunno.  There is a degree in health care administration and I have yet to meet a competent hospital administrator.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    @scav:

    Agree. That’s going to come back and bite them in the ass too, because if students are just customers, “customers” are going to be much more upset that the managers of the product they purchased sent police in to attack them than “students”would be. Are they familiar with customers? They’re pretty demanding. They may just quietly take their business elsewhere.

  101. 101.

    hueyplong

    I’m willing to bet more money than I can afford to lose that a nonzero percentage of MAGAts lighten their load to that repulsive Noem story.

    This shit is playing out like one of those Frank Capra “Why We Fight” WWII films.

  102. 102.

    Cacti

    Protesting Israel is not a crime.

    Biden shaking his cane at the protesters isn’t helpful.

  103. 103.

    TBone

    @Bupalos: if a politician commits senseless murder I need to know that.  I didn’t know this about that scum woman until today.

  107. 107.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @trollhattan: She killed a puppy for:

    • being a puppy, and
    • not being trained.

    There doesn’t seem to be any place in this story where she tried training the puppy. She seems to think dogs come fully mature and trained at birth. Has she ever owned a dog?

    Unfortunately there are apparently a lot of people who think the same way, as evidenced by the number of young pups given to or returned to shelters for the same crime of being an energetic untrained puppy.

  110. 110.

    PaulB

    @Bupalos: That is not a story.

    The woman in that story has a reasonable chance of being the next Vice-President of the United States and, in future, as a serious candidate for the Republican nomination for President. She herself told that story about her past as as something that showed her willingness and her ability to do things that were “difficult, messy and ugly.” In other words, this is something she is proud of, something that shows her character.

    When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

    So yes, this is a story. Whether it rises to the level that it warrants one of the front-pagers showcasing it, rather than having comments about it in an open thread, is up to them. But please don’t pretend that this is a non-story that should be ignored.

  112. 112.

    Soprano2

    @WaterGirl: THAT IS SO HORRIBLE. SHE IS A HORRIBLE PERSON. She could have found another home for it. These kinds of things tell you what kind of person someone is, that the solution she’d come up with was this.

  113. 113.

    Cacti

    @TBone: Well, I went to Rafah and helped save hundreds of lives fleeing from Joe’s bombs.

    How bout you?

    (Weren’t expecting that one, were you?)

  114. 114.

    Bupalos

    @TBone: Request to not game-ify the Ukraine conflict, dirty it by making it a subsidiary of U.S. democratic dysfunction and partisanship, or cheapen the poetry of the Ukrainian grandmother that performed that incredibly brave act of defiance.

  116. 116.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Bupalos: Well, somebody could have added something about Trump falling asleep and/or breaking wind in court, but that’s already been done.  On to today’s top story!

  117. 117.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @wjca: A friend of ours recently took the job of president of Smith College. We admire her a lot, believe she’s one of the good ones. Like college presidents everywhere, she also is dealing with student protests. I’d say, it’s unfortunate to take over a college at this fraught time, but she dealt, successfully, with some other fraught issues in her last job.

  119. 119.

    Bupalos

    @TBone: It’s not murder. Using that term is highly problematic.

    I have no idea whether that was a truly problematic dog (as self reported by that failed whack-job) or not. But please. This is how we get abortion clinic bombings and meat-eaters being called murderers and cannibals. It’s a dog, reportedly a violent dog, that “murders” chickens and “assaults” humans and can we please not use legal terms like this in these cases?

    You want those terms for hyper-partisan reasons. Don’t take this bait. Don’t get thirsty for this kind of garbage.

  120. 120.

    LAO

    @Bupalos: ok. I simply asked if we had already discussed the story because I don’t pay that much attention to this blog (sorry FPs) and if there was a thread I’d go to it rather than raise it again here.

    But feel free to make unfounded assumptions or accusations about my personal motivations.  Your opinion is very important to me.

  122. 122.

    Baud

    @Harrison Wesley: We could have a long discussion over whether Biden’s off-the-cuff retort to an idiot reporting who asked him about his legacy was effective or not. But I think that’s been done too.

  124. 124.

    Heidi Mom

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yesterday Chasten Buttigieg posted on his Facebook account an article suggesting that the twins’ arrival really changed Pete’s thoughts about his future and how he could make a difference.  He’s not necessarily ruling anything in or out, but the pros and cons will definitely be weighed differently while the kids are school-age.  (They’ll turn three later this year, so would be just starting school as presidential campaigns get underway in 2007.)

  130. 130.

    Bupalos

    @LAO: Is there something personal there? There is a strong desire to hear about this, I have a strong feeling that it’s not a healthy desire, and strong feelings about what this kind of thing portends.

  131. 131.

    PaulB

    @Baud:  We could have a long discussion over whether Biden’s off-the-cuff retort to an idiot reporting who asked him about his legacy was effective or not. But I think that’s been done too.

    To death. Not the only time that particular poster has derailed a thread with contrarian bullshit.

    And, with that, I’m outta here, lest I be accused of feeding the trolls. Besides, I hear a bacon burger calling my name.

  133. 133.

    JPL

    @LAO: Every blog has an asshole and he/she is ours.   It was that long ago that several Russain cronies were spreading misinformation here.

  135. 135.

    Ksmiami

    @Bupalos: she’s the governor of a state with a potentially long runway in the GOP. She killed a puppy ffs. That says everything I need to know about what a garbage person she is

  136. 136.

    Percysowner

     

    I do think Harris probably needs to go with a straight, white guy as VP. I don’t have any ideas who is in a safe seat that can be called on, but I’m sure she can find somebody. I would love her not to have to do that, maybe make it an all woman ticket or tap Buttigieg, but discretion is the better part of valor.

    As for Buttigieg, either the Senate or going for a Governorship would burnish his credentials. Senate can give him lots of exposure if the Dems put him on the right committees, being a Governor gives him more administrative cred.

    On the horrific news of the day, Noem sickens me. My little beagle was useless as a hunting dog, the usual beagle “job”. She was terrified of loud, sharp noises, so anything related to guns was out. One time we were on a walk and there was the sound of a hammer coming down when the neighbor was putting on a new roof. She tried to run in the opposite direction. The only thing stopping her was that I never let her off leash. I ended up carrying her home because she was so scared. Last year, after months of trying to treat her, I made the decision to put her out of her pain. I held her and told her what a good girl she was. I can’t fathom the cruelty of what Noem did. That poor, poor puppy.

  137. 137.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Baud: Ah, these stories that last but a fleeting minute.  As the great Marx put it, “Time flies like an arrow.  Fruit flies like a banana.”

  139. 139.

    PaulB

    @Cacti:  @PaulB: See 126.

    I’m not really impressed with, “I know you are but what am I” retorts. I stopped being impressed with those in first grade. But hey, you do you.

    Feel free to carry on your delusions without me; I have better things to do. Bye, all.

  141. 141.

    Bupalos

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: That’s because people who vote republican are the kind of people that simply thirst for blood. When they see cute puppies and kitties, their first thought is “can I train it to kill a democrat” and their second thought is “is it worth it to wait the amount of time to see if it will spill democrat blood? Couldn’t I just see blood NOW??!”

    It’s because these “people” aren’t really human. Why aren’t there more posts about that, and less about whatever about the airplane tickets that are 92% purchased by white people?

  144. 144.

    LAO

     

    @Bupalos:

     

    That is not a story. It’s you thirsty for “tell me my opponents aren’t human.”

    This felt kind of personal. TBH

  145. 145.

    VFX Lurker

    Everyone understands that the Rs are going to do everything they can to build up and inflame these protests to distract from their nominee who is a rapist, a serial criminal, a fraudster, a betrayer of the country and the ugliest political thing we’ve ever seen?

    Baud called it a few threads ago. Republicans care about power more than they care about people.

  149. 149.

    LAO

    @JPL: Ah, I really neglected this place. Thank dog a high profile criminal trial in my yard surfaced bringing me back for all the fun.

  152. 152.

    WaterGirl

    @Percysowner: Some people are built for executive positions and would be driven mad in the House or in the Senate.

    Those people are “get it done” people, which is not compatible with the senate.

    Case in point – Stacey Abrams.  Another case in point – Pete Buttigieg.

  153. 153.

    Bupalos

     

    @LAO:

    OK, agreed and apologies. I try to be more disciplined about that. I’m referring to the larger “you” that I see specifically requesting this story on 3 different blogs. It meshes with my idea of how the internet is increasing partisanship through algorithmic optimization.

    There are people who treat animals as objects. It’s roughly 86% of the U.S. population and includes a large majority of Democrats and and overwhelming majority of Republicans.

    Pausing to try and imagine Republican vegetarians….

  155. 155.

    Bupalos

    @Baud: So see, it didn’t have to be a long back and forth. It was a kind of insistence that he must have made the optimum response that required you not to let the opinion that it was not the optimum response go unchallenged. And then it’s just kind of not acceptable that I think “you’re rubber and I’m glue” is not what a politician should optimally do in hammering in his support of reproductive rights. And maybe not even in  showing how quick-witted he is.

    But let me just predict that the number of “contrarian asshole” labels are going to multiply like bunnies even as the folks on any given partisan space become more and more homogenous. Almost like that’s how the internet works.

  156. 156.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Oh, I’m sure. It’s just a little shocking to watch them fold so quickly and completely. Another “institution” that seems to be made of cardboard and duct tape. The turning on the students freaks me out a little – like maybe they’ve hated/resented them this whole time and were just looking for an excuse to punch them.

  158. 158.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Spanky:

    Yeah, there’s no meat on those old bags at all. 

    LOL!  I see I’m not the only one who read it that way!

  159. 159.

    Bupalos

    Oh man, I just saw that someone calling out my suggestion shooting an aggressive dog shouldn’t be called “murder” just to froth up a partisan community headed off for…. a bacon cheeseburger! That is (I hope) some masterful counter-contrarian-troll-trolling.

  160. 160.

    Tony Jay

    Opposition to Israel’s assault on Gaza’s civilian population and the basic infrastructure than allows them to live there is widespread and popular. Support for Israel’s Hard-Right Government and its extremist violence is considerably less so. So it behoves those who do not like this tangent of public opinion at all to try and rewrite the common narrative so that pro-Palestine = RADICAL CAMPUS VIOLENCE and pro-Israel = BLUE LINE OF LAW’N’ORDER.

    That’s what the plan is. I don’t think it’s going to work in the US. I particularly don’t think it’s going to work over here when protests at UK Universities run headlong into the insanely prescriptive Public Order powers the Tories have gifted themselves (and their newlabourplc successors) with.

    Shoot themselves in the nutsack, they will. It’s not 1968 anymore. I mean, just look at the Kennedy in this race. He looks like The Sahara Desert entered a Do You Want To Build A Snowman competition and didn’t make it past the first round.

  161. 161.

    JPL

    @cain: Just getting a timeline of when trump was in the office and his routines.   He never left a paper trail.   He did learn something from the mob.

    The defense is suggesting that maybe Stormy was paid for a possible appearance on The apprentice.

    hahahahahha yeah right

  162. 162.

    Bill Arnold

    @Redshift:
    For those who don’t know this trick, the text of WaPo pieces can be read by turning off or otherwise blocking javascript. (At least this is true today.)
    That piece is LOL funny.

    ETA never mind. In this case some other plugin was blocking/breaking the gift link. But the trick does work.

  167. 167.

    Bupalos

    @TBone: No apology needed, I like that clip.

    And my take here is in effect contrarian on how we defeat these people, and to some extent I think that clip is a reasonable response.

    The difference would be that I don’t think that Noem is getting “punched” here, obviously not literally and not even really metaphorically or effectively. Feels good to us, but frankly it probably feels good to her, too. I think that doing this “two different kinds of humans” is the game they are playing that we’re falling for. It’s a way they hope to insulate their marks from intervention

    It’s very obvious to me that the dynamics of the internet and just natural human response is hungry for this “yes, tell me how we are not actually of the same species” stuff. Because the internet promises that you don’t have to live with these people or make political choices alongside them. They can just… go away. You just say “fuck off” and click here and magically they are gone. And it’s changing our brains. This idea that we change our environment and change our society by clicks.

  168. 168.

    New Deal democrat

    @Tony Jay: I’ve lost the link, but there is a *huge* difference in support for US military support for Israel’s Gaza invasion between the old and the young. Over 65’s support it about 2:1, and under 30’s oppose it about 2:1, with the age groups in between falling in between re support as well.

    I suspect cracking demonstrators’ heads will have lots of support among the Olds, and lots of opposition by the Youngs. Since white Olds are the GOP’s core support, that’s all good as far as they are concerned. The GOP may also hope to peel off some Jewish voters who would otherwise overwhelmingly support the Dems.

  169. 169.

    sxjames

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Cruelty to a dog is not going to win Noem points with the  American electorate.

    True, but it will earn points with TIFG.  (Is she even running for Vice president?)

  171. 171.

    TBone

    @pat: hospital named Evangelical in sorta red area of PA where we have no other options  without much preparation and long travel, etc.

  175. 175.

    dnfree

    @SiubhanDuinne: Me too. I think I got an hourly rate that was a dime more for being able to use an electric typewriter vs a manual one. (I could type on either, but electric paid slightly more.)

  177. 177.

    TBone

    @Bupalos: PS I keep neighborly relations with Rumpers, cheerfully IRL. Because we are neighbors and I am a Xtian-type spiritual person. OK, I’ll admit: with some of them I’m very neighborly and always, always kind.  Others have fucked all the way off where they belong.

  178. 178.

    Bupalos

    @Sister Golden Bear: ooohhhh. Don’t like this. Already feel like Schiff is at best a half-liberal, and also kind of a half-bright. Stuff like this changes these people for the worse. Like why did he announce this?

    Was agnostic….might be starting to feel like Porter!…

  180. 180.

    VFX Lurker

    @Bupalos: ooohhhh. Don’t like this. Already feel like Schiff is at best a half-liberal, and also kind of a half-bright.

    As an Armenian-American in Schiff’s district who voted for Schiff for several elections, I will have to disagree with you on this uninformed statement.

    But, you do you.

  181. 181.

    TBone

    @pat: he is now regaling me with stories about how many times he’s farted and had to call the nurse to HEY COME BACK HERE 😆 complete with sound effects and Smellovision. Gawd I love my hubby!

  183. 183.

    sab

    @Jackie: I am the proud owner of a Mayor Pete Explorers Club t-shirt from his presidential primary run in 2019. I first heard him on the Cleveland 9am local NPR public interest news interview show.

    NPR national may mostly suck (especially during the morning and afternoon/evening commute) but there are good shows locally all over the country.

  184. 184.

    Bupalos

    @Jackie: I love dogs…well…not universally, there are some dogs that should be put down, mostly because they are too dangerous thanks to humans. And I… oh wait…I would never vote for Kristi Noem no matter what. But not because of the dog thing. Tell me Tester did this and I’d still crawl over broken glass etc.

  186. 186.

    sab

    @Albatrossity: For some bizarre reason the MSM higher ups want to relive 1968. Having been alive and a politically active youngster back then, I am not amused.

  187. 187.

    sab

    @LAO: 14 month ain’t a dog yet. She shot her kids’ rambuctious puppy.That will: 1) remind her kids to behave or else, and 2) impress Trump that she is a fellow sociopath and not a spineless moralizing weenie like Pence. Double win for her.

  188. 188.

    wjca

    @Bill Arnold: For those who don’t know this trick, the text of WaPo pieces can be read by turning off or otherwise blocking javascript.

    For those not technologically inclined, it’s actually even easier than that.

    Put your cursor over the link
    Click on “Open in incognito tab”
    As soon as the title becomes visible on your screen, click on the X to stop downloading.
    Voila!  Readable entire article.
    Close tab when finished, and you’re good to go next time.

    The bad news: doesn’t work for cartoons, or their columnists’weekly chat/question columns.

  189. 189.

    sab

    @trollhattan: My grandfather raised, bred and hunted with german shorthair pointers. The grandkids all loved them. A lot of dog in each package but excellent dogs.

    I hope the breeders boycott her family so they never get another.

  191. 191.

    Bupalos

    @TBone: I hear you.

    We could trade notes on Trumpers. It’s not easy. They also aren’t anything like ‘all the same.’ I can deal with the women all day long. I’m not having much success with the dudes even though I can definitely speak Fishing and Hunting.

  192. 192.

    Bupalos

    @VFX Lurker: Alright. Tell me then. I think this blog did a thing with his book and I was like…mmmmmm….

    didn’t feel quite real to me.

  193. 193.

    Bupalos

    @sab: Wait what??!?!

    Love puppies. Everyone loves puppies.

    yeah though I’ve been in the presence of 14month “puppies” that it was like…. uhhhh….who did this?

    This dumb nazi lady who is looking for “the right kind of aggressive” hunting dog might have ended up on the wrong side of this. I don’t know. You don’t know. The point is that the internet (where you are right now) makes people want to push reality (whatever it was in this case) in a certain direction (partisan) and spin it into a story that is effective on the internet (where you are right now.)

  194. 194.

    Bupalos

    @sab: But that’s MAYO pete. You’re admitting you think he’s possibly OK just because he speaks a language the right white people vibe with?”

    (don’t hate me for this, find other stuff…because we’re going to have to do this at some point since this blog is 90% “white.” Also the demographic “white” might be a growth market if you talk to Venezuelans or Mexicans or Colombians or…..)

  195. 195.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: The students are supposed to go to class, graduate, tell everyone how great the college is, and give it money. They aren’t supposed to be disruptive or demand anything beyond an education. The administrations are treating them like they’re in grade school or junior high, because that’s how they see them. It’s so dumb, none of this is necessary or smart for them.

  196. 196.

    sab

    @Bupalos: I agree that young german shorthairs cannot be trusted with all children (my grandparents let me play with them but not my siblings and only some of my cousins.)

    Same for german shepherds.

    AKC disagrees with me, suggesting that they are all little furry lovebugs. They aren’t.

    Train them and let them grow up to be the sensible intelligent dog they can be. Don’t kill them as puppies to prove you are tough on the campaign trail.

    Nothing in this story suggests Cricket was a problem puppy that was a threat to her kids.  Everything suggests she wanted to to kill the pooch to prove she was a sociopath.

  197. 197.

    Soprano2

    @Bupalos: My personal opinion is that what she did is the action of a sociopath or a psychopath. She took the most violent way out of the situation rather than manage it some other way, such as finding the dog a more suitable home. We need to know that someone who might someday become president has this type of mindset, because if they’ll do it to animals they’ll do it to people too. It didn’t sound to me as if the dog was violent or aggressive toward humans, just that it didn’t do what she wanted it to do.

  198. 198.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @wjca: It’s a problem in the newspaper industry as too. Back when I was a journalist, when someone got promoted to editor the entire training consisted of “Sit over there now.”

    More broadly it’s a widespread problem in any industry where someone gets promoted into management based on their individual contributor skills — reporting, lawyering, programming, sales, etc. — unless companies make a focused effort to develop the entirely new set of skills required to become a manager. Which they typically don’t.

  202. 202.

    Citizen Alan

    @wjca:  I dunno. If the electorate can handle a black woman as President, I don’t think they’ll blink twice at the Ward Cleaver of gay men (veteran, happily married with adorable kids, and possibly the most genial person in American politics).

  203. 203.

    Brachiator

    @Bupalos:

    But that’s MAYO pete. You’re admitting you think he’s possibly OK just because he speaks a language the right white people vibe with?”

    No. It’s because he has been an effective Transportation Secretary and excellent spokesperson for this administration.

  206. 206.

    PaulB

    @Bupalos:  Oh man, I just saw that someone calling out my suggestion shooting an aggressive dog shouldn’t be called “murder” just to froth up a partisan community headed off for…. a bacon cheeseburger! That is (I hope) some masterful counter-contrarian-troll-trolling.

    Is reading comprehension always this much trouble for you? No, I wasn’t “counter-contrarian-troll-trolling,” although thank you for admitting that you are, in fact, a contrarian troll. Nor did I say anything about your pedantry on the use of the word “murder.” You simply made that up, without bothering to actually read what I wrote.

    The post I replied to was the one in which you said: “Jesus. Y’all thirsty for this one,” while insisting that this was a “non-story.” My reply to you, which you failed to respond to, was that it was, in fact, a real story, particularly in what it revealed about Noem, a potential Republican candidate for VP and/or for President. Then you compounded the idiocy with this statement:

    “This dumb nazi lady who is looking for “the right kind of aggressive” hunting dog might have ended up on the wrong side of this. I don’t know. You don’t know.”

    In fact, we do know, since we have her own words. This was a story she told about herself, about actions that she was proud of. You also accused us of wanting to “push reality … in a certain direction,” while simultaneously ignoring that the story is quite real. And then you got even worse, by insisting:

    But that’s MAYO pete. You’re admitting you think he’s possibly OK just because he speaks a language the right white people vibe with?”

    (don’t hate me for this, find other stuff…because we’re going to have to do this at some point since this blog is 90% “white.” Also the demographic “white” might be a growth market if you talk to Venezuelans or Mexicans or Colombians or…..)

    I’m not even going to bother pointing out just how wrong, not to mention quite idiotic, these statements are. Here’s a free clue for you: when you’re in a hole, STOP DIGGING.

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