Woke up this morning to this:
The man behind Project 2025, the rightwing policy manifesto that includes calls for a sharp increase in immigrant deportations if Donald Trump is elected, told university colleagues about two decades ago that he had killed a neighborhood dog with a shovel because it was barking and disturbing his family, according to former colleagues who spoke to the Guardian.
Kevin Roberts, now the president of the Heritage Foundation, is alleged to have told colleagues and dinner guests that he killed a neighbor’s pit bull around 2004 while he was working as a still relatively unknown history professor at New Mexico State University.
At least Kristi Noem had the good grace to use a gun when she dispatched poor Cricket. A shovel seems both more brutal and more on-brand for the guy who dreamt up Project 2025.
Suzanne
The answer: BECAUSE THEY ARE BAD PEOPLE.
scav
There’s the other odd detail that so many heard it in public conversation and it just slid for so long. Is killing neighbors pets just recently considered dodgy behavior?
BretH
@Suzanne: I think we can just close comments now ☺️
Yarrow
Because they’re abusers.
rk
I wouldn’t be surprised if he ate the dog (and maybe some cats) as well.
Steve LaBonne
@Yarrow: Which is why their response to pretty much everything is DARVO.
Yarrow
Mitt Romney put the family dog on top of the car. Kristi Noem shot their dog. This guy killed the neighbor’s dog with a shovel. Every iteration is worse.
Sister Golden Bear
THEY’RE BEATING THE DOGS, THEY’RE BEATING THE CATS, THEY’RE BESTING THE PETS!!!!
Chris
There’s a reason puppy-kicking is a visual shorthand for “bad person” in so much of pop culture. You really can, as it turns out, tell a lot about people from how they treat those they don’t have to treat well.
Oh well, at least we know where this obsession with immigrants killing dogs comes from.
WaterGirl
Sick bastards!
Or maybe serial killers, who got stuck in the early phases? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Yarrow
@Chris:
Every accusation is a confession.
Michael Bersin
To contrast the ideologies:
Decades ago a progressive friend (and teacher), living in New Mexico, stole the dog of a neighbor who abused the dog. The friend was moving out of town and took the dog with them. I met the dog soon after, the sweetest thing, but you had to give the dog time to get to know you because it was so skittish around “new” people.
HumboldtBlue
More than 700 high-ranking national security officials endorse Harris
Suzanne
@Chris:
Yes. Same with how people treat waitstaff, if people return the shopping cart, if people pick up their trash, etc. It’s all basic fitness-for-society stuff.
I will note that I saw an unattended dog in a run a couple of months ago. Posted about it to my neighborhood Facebook page. Did not realize I was kicking a hornet’s nest. Never again.
ETA: Also if you let your bushes get so overgrown they block the sidewalk. Fuck those people.
Chief Oshkosh
Like a sage once said, some people need killin’.
laura
Cruelty so casual that he believed his depravity was a fit subject for both the water cooler and the dinner party. The sense of entitlement to dispatch a neighbor’s pet. Is their a single Republican who is not a complete shite-bag?
Chris
Also, this clip from Charlie Wilson’s War feels obligatory given the topic.
Kay
My mother, sort of infamously, once killed a groundhog with a shovel. They were garden enemies.
When I said it to her once as a teenager to get under her skin she said “it was a SPADE, not a shovel”
Just COLD :)
Steve LaBonne
@Suzanne: Right wingers completely lack empathy and, not unrelatedy, are afraid of their own shadows. Just a really destructive personality type.
CaseyL
They’re vile, repellent human-skin wearing monsters.
30-odd years ago, Bill Donohue, the head of the Catholic League (ultra RW, the template for today’s RW god-botherers) boasted – actually boasted! – about belt-whipping his dachshund until it was properly docile and submissive.
They’ve been at this a while.
Animals are powerless stand-ins for every human who won’t bow to them.
lowtechcyclist
I’m glad this story is making the news. Hopefully it will draw people’s attention to our country’s need to round up and deport Republicans en masse.
HumboldtBlue
@laura:
No.
TBone
Today’s Tiedrich solace:
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/the-press-is-failing-us-just-when
different-church-lady
This is not helping my mood.
different-church-lady
@TBone: It was never about Biden being old. It was always about “Democrats are worried about Biden being old.”
Because (wait for it…) Democrats were told to be worried that everyone thought Biden was too old, and eventually they complied.
They know the same game won’t work with Trump, so they won’t play it. Half of them are complicit and the other half are chumps.
Chris
@WaterGirl:
Less “serial killers stuck in the early stages,” more “what might have been normal people, socialized into sociopathic behavior by their environment,” I think.
I’ve observed this before, but a stupendous amount of conservative ideology consists of taking the basic impulses of empathy and decency that pretty much all humans have at least some of, and aggressively recategorizing them as “weakness,” “wokeness,” “political correctness,” “liberalism,” “socialism,” and whatever the hell else the buzzwords of the week are. It ends up leaving behind a ton of emotionally stunted humans who think killing, hurting, or at the very least asserting your power over other people is the only way to prove yourself and handle problems.
(There’s probably a “toxic masculinity” spiel to be put in here somewhere, but Kristi Noem demonstrates it’s not just men).
Chris
@laura:
I somehow missed in my first read that this was a neighbor’s pet.
I’ll just bet this is one of these people who can’t shut up about how property rights are the sacred foundation of all civilization, too.
Jeffro
Aren’t we running about 30- or 40-to-1, GOP vs Dems, when it comes to “horrible people” stories?
(even if 20 of those 40 stories are just different horrible aspects of trump?)
I mean come on now…Noem…Gaetz…Loomer…Roberts…Thomas…Robinson…Vance…Vance again…
I think we had Bob Menendez (for bribery, not dog-bashing!) and he resigned.
Just ridiculously bad people, all around.
TBone
@different-church-lady: I guess that’s why “being force-fed a narrative” appears in bold print.
Matt McIrvin
@scav: I think there’s a weird “authentic rural culture” association with being un-squeamish about killing farm animals, pests and hunters’ prey, and sometimes it kind of bleeds over to something like this, and the people telling the story are so intent on the “tough and un-squeamish” cultural marker that they don’t even realize it sounds depraved.
different-church-lady
TIRED: Lies about immigrants eating neighbors’ pets
WIRED: MAGA operatives bragging about killing neighbors’ pets
Anonymous At Work
@Chris: Wouldn’t go all the way to sociopath but conservatives have been shown to possess low empathy [for others]. Dogs love unconditionally as well, which is part of why TFG doesn’t trust them. So, conservatives aren’t against killing things that bother them because neither the violence nor the killing triggers the same level of revulsion in most other people.
But that’s only as a general tendency in large datasets.
different-church-lady
@TBone: Stunned me how many people couldn’t see it two months ago.
TBone
@different-church-lady: 👍
HumboldtBlue
This isn’t good news.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne:
Though I’ve gotten into weird arguments about that second one, where people claim that returning the shopping cart instead of letting paid supermarket employees do it is being a scab, or something.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Some people are just weird.
Suzanne
@Chris:
Only their own property.
And their children are their property.
TBone
Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to jail I go!
Reposting because First Amendment says he can fuck all the way off 😊 with that bullshit. This is another reminder that the Supremacists Court bumpstockers carry the stench of putrid, moldy orange garbage in perpetuity!
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/09/trump-we-should-imprison-people
different-church-lady
Okay, nothing is helping my mood:
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Arresting such people should be a good thing, no?
TBone
@different-church-lady: facepalm
Barbara
@Matt McIrvin: Yes, but it’s also something you see with people who get a “big mean” dog “for protection” in urban or suburban spaces — I went to a neighborhood event in which a woman gloated about how her German Shepherd terrified all the kids at the playground. She was visibly shocked when I told her that I thought that children should be able to feel safe at a playground and it was her duty to let them know that her dog could not hurt them when she was out with him on a leash. I don’t even think the dog was mean, she just liked tormenting little kids.
It was all I could do not to say “what the fuck is wrong with you?”
scav
@Matt McIrvin: This one has notched it up a slot by being about a neighbor’s pet, that is to say a neighbor’s property in their world view. Yep, authentically violating their sacred property rights now along with whatever religiously-based “traditional” neighborliness they once patted themselves on the back about. Will their next witty dinner party anecdote be about shooting out their neighbors living room stereo and all adjacent to it in response to a too-loud party? “Heh heh heh, the bullet spray certainly livened their dancing no end.”
Scout211
@TBone: Nice.
I posted an excerpt from another opinion piece against the media in a thread downstairs. Well, a rant specifically against the FNYT.
Here’s the Tweet for Drew Magary’s piece at sfgate.com with the teaser.
Steve LaBonne
@TBone: “By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court today decided that the First Amendment does not preclude criminal prosecution of people who criticize Supreme Court decisions.”
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
6-0, since the three libs were in jail.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Well yes, that, but I mean seeing just how many deeply fucked-up people there are in the world is taking my taxes-doing melancholy and kicking it into depression-gear.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: Right you are. Naive of me.
eclare
@Chris:
Love that movie.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, this is definitely a thing.
What it always reminds me of is a little detail Homer took the trouble to insert into the Illiad and the Odyssey. Among everything Odysseus leaves behind when he goes to war is a puppy that he’s started training but is still too small to have been taken on a hunt with. When he gets back to Ithaca eighteen years later, the dog, now old and neglected, is the only living being that actually recognizes him. Unfortunately, he can’t return the favor without breaking character, and the dog dies before they’ve had a chance at a proper reunion. In a pair of poems that includes the destruction of an entire city and the death of every other member of Odysseus’ crew, it still somehow manages to be one of the peak tearjerkers.
And the “be strong and kill your animals!” types always remind me of this, because these are the same people – especially the nerdy, J. D. Vance types; Kristi Noem might not fit this profile, but I promise you the leader of the Heritage Foundation does – who are absolutely obsessed with the ancient Greeks, as a font of all proper masculinity and strength. Can you imagine how disappointed they’d be if they ever actually met the ancient Greeks? And found out that, no, actually, they got just as sentimental about their animals as we do; it really is just you that’s an asshole?
SatanicPanic
@laura: Yeah wtf, the neighbor’s dog? That deserves a beatdown by the entire neighborhood. You can’t allow that kind of person in your neighborhood, he’ll probably kill a child next.
dr. luba
Let us not forget the other Huckabee spawn, also a dog killer……
trnc
TBone
I have horror stories about two friends tangling with MAGA type rethuglican neighbors. The guy friend is a paraplegic and his wife is a free spirit so, naturally, they are targets of the upstanding, civil society, small business owning, wealthier next door neighbors there. The neighbors began by blocking all deliveries and utility ingress from getting up the driveway to my friends. Then, these fine citizens cut the penis of my friends’ dog with something very sharp (luckily got him to the vet before he bled out), because these
peoplemonsters were certain that they owned the shared driveway. I got a former employer attorney involved when they sued my friends, and he obtained a $10,000 monetary judgment on behalf of the true owners of the driveway (my friends). Theupstanding, small business owning, fine and normal citizensmonsters had a new driveway built rather than paying the judgement.Once the monsters found out that I’d helped my friends, I was also set up in a police incident but luckily my FOP representative employer intervened on my behalf (long story but that retaliation effort failed).
Kay
@HumboldtBlue:
Blinken has zero credibility. An unmitigated disaster.
I keep thinking of how Tim Kaine said 9 months ago that the Biden Gaza policy was “a failure” and no one listened to him. Tim Kaine is a Biden ally. Just absolute bull headed stubborness to ignore him (and everyone else who dissented – there were and are A LOT of people).
I cannot wait until the Biden State Department clears out. They do damage to the US every additional day they’re in there. I hope so much Harris gets an entirely new crew with fresh eyes and a actual commitment to following US law.
This is now Blinken’s fucking ego. He can’t admit he’s been tragically, spectacularly wrong every step of the way. He’s now the defense attorney for war criminals.
rikyrah
Portia ♍️ McGonagal (@PortiaMcGonagal) posted at 11:07 AM on Tue, Sep 24, 2024:
In re: Trump’s view as a “protector”. The only people I’ve ever wanted protection from are the types of people who support him. Racists, bigots, misogynists…creepy men who don’t know that “No” is a complete sentence. Nationalists ignorant of US and world history. 1/
(https://x.com/PortiaMcGonagal/status/1838611179553652928?t=LAs6Qu7ayw4gESorBlAJAA&s=03)
Portia ♍️ McGonagal (@PortiaMcGonagal) posted at 11:09 AM on Tue, Sep 24, 2024:
2/2
Mean girl women like Megyn Kelly who create drama for non-white and especially Black women in the workplace. “Boy Moms” and Moms for Liberty WW who use passive aggressive tactics to position themselves as victims of the “angry Black woman”.
(https://x.com/PortiaMcGonagal/status/1838611716344807620?t=0-quxmn3lk28NxIUi4oHYw&s=03)
rikyrah
Candidly Tiff 🪷💛 (@tify330) posted at 11:34 AM on Tue, Sep 24, 2024:
I am still deeply disturbed at how Larry handled the covid vaccine distribution especially since he lied on Black and Brown Marylanders saying they were hesitant, when in fact more access was needed. https://t.co/SbdliUr0xU
(https://x.com/tify330/status/1838618044102291716?t=UutxKFhvtAr9hg1Quni5qQ&s=03)
All SHOULD Be Equal Before THEE Law🪷🇺🇲🇺🇦🌻🟦 (@EqualUnderLaw12) posted at 11:25 AM on Tue, Sep 24, 2024:
Larry Hogan botched COVID vaccine distribution. He started slow & never caught up. Hogan spent tens of millions of $$$ on consultants for MD to be among the slowest states for vax distribution. With MD’s deep healthcare resources, this was a massive fail.
https://t.co/KJ7UoRNvoV https://t.co/iA58sNbRcw
(https://x.com/EqualUnderLaw12/status/1838615846731592064?s=03)
cain
@HumboldtBlue:
I hope they replace Blinken in the new Harris administration.
RevRick
Republicans have a hierarchical view not only in terms of human relations but also in terms of our relationship to the natural world. Basically, they view the world instrumentally, that it’s a tool for our use and exploitation. And this goes for the animal world as well. When you hear conservative thinkers (using that word loosely) talk about the natural order of dominance and submission, you get the feeling that they believe poor people own pets so that they have an animal they can kick.
The abuse of animals is cut from the same cloth as “drill, baby, drill” and climate change denial. God gave us dominion over the world and every living thing, and, by golly, we’re going to exercise it with a vengeance. Nevermind the fact that theirs is a sick and twisted notion of what that passage of Scripture means by dominion. Hint: it’s stewardship, not exploitation.
Kay
@HumboldtBlue:
Blinken was once the point man defending Biden’s vote on the Iraq invasion, so this is not a one-off. He’s always on the wrong side. Consistently poor judgment. Oh, well. At least he has practice defending atrocities and war crimes.
Soprano2
@Michael Bersin: My husband did that a long time ago. He said it took a month to get her to walk on a leash. She was the most loyal dog to him, and such a sweetheart. I cannot understand people who abuse animals or other people.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@TBone: Thank you so much for turning me on to him and his daily screeds! He is great solace.
TBone
@RevRick: stewardship is such a great word.
TBone
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): 💜🥰
gwangung
@Barbara: Perhaps we should NOT hold back on saying that.
Make them defend their asshole behavior.
Chris
@HumboldtBlue:
It really is right out of the GOP playbook.
“Well yes, the CIA, State Department, IAEA, and all our allies’ relevant agencies have all confirmed that Iran is abiding by JCPOA terms, but that’s just not what I want to be true.”
Or back to the Reagan era, when Casey literally took the product of analysts whose conclusions he didn’t like, rewrote them so that they said something he did like, and just handed that in to the cabinet as “intelligence.”
Why bother having a professional public service at all, really? Blinken knows everything. He can do everything. Why, the next thing you know he’ll have brought peace to the Middle East just like Jared Kushner.
Spanky
@different-church-lady:
Amen. Nominated. Permanent tag, please.
Trollhattan
Could have happily gone [checks watch] the rest of my life without having read that story.
Trollhattan
@TBone:
He wants to be Putin so hard. You can’t say shit about any politician or any foreign intrigue in Russia without risking the gulag. “Sounds great!” says Donny.
Chris
@RevRick:
When I was young and just beginning to notice politics, one of the very first things that was “off” to me about the right wing was the sheer rage that environmentalists drove them into. It was just completely out of all proportion to anything these people had ever done or even suggested. But then, environmentalism is a suggestion that you should take good care of something that’s hierarchically “beneath” you. Of course it drives them insane.
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara: Dogs obtained to be big and mean are often terribly abused too.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin:
As someone who used to do that….. I promise those employees have other things to do, and would appreciate the return of the cart to a cart corral.
See also: throwing away your trash and returning your tray at a fast food restaurant.
TBone
@Trollhattan: exactly so. Fuck ’em all – I dissent!!!
Kosh III
The story doesn’t say how the neighbor reacted? If it had been my dog my first action would’ve been “hello sheriff…..”
TBone
@Chris: 👍
TBone
@Scout211: 💙😍💪
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: The discourse had that air of “so devoted to your theoretical framework that you go up your own asshole”.
TBone
@Steve LaBonne: please don’t tempt fate! 🤬
VP Harris coming out forcefully today in favor of getting rid of the filibuster is the shot across their bow heard ’round the world!
kindness
I’m so thankful no one ever did anything like this to me or mine. All I know is if they had, I’d still be in jail if you know what I mean.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: The one that gets me is the blind spitting rage about accommodations for the disabled. Like, what the living fuck, people?
I know, some small-business owner had to spend some money to probably make things better for everyone.
RevRick
@Chris: good observation.
Matt McIrvin
@TBone: I think the campaign needs to do something that makes a big media splash every couple of weeks to keep the energy up.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Doesn’t this reflect poorly on Biden on his selection of Blinken and his keeping him on as Secretary of State?
Ishiyama
This happened today: https://www.chandralaw.com/blog/criminal-charges-filed-against-trump-and-vance-for-springfield-ohio-conduct-arrests-sought
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: that description is *chef’s kiss!
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Probably true, but also, shame on us because it’s true.
Trollhattan
@TBone:
My goodness, this must send the Susan Collins Furrow Gauge™ to Irrigation Ditch.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: Me either.
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: I’m pretty sure they are on it – President Biden, while appearing on The View, is gonna stump for his VP unless I miss my guess.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Sure, don’t vote for him in November.
TBone
@Ishiyama: hallelujah!
TBone
@Trollhattan: 😆
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): By and large, Biden has shown himself to be an adaptable leader who can learn from past mistakes, but I think his Middle East policy is one place where the old shows itself. Everything he’s done there is out of another generation, bog standard centrist Democratic policy of 30 years ago. And it doesn’t seem to be up for debate.
I’m used to this being the bipartisan norm of US politics; what are you gonna do–but I’m an old guy too.
Can Harris differentiate herself from that? Well, she’s not going to tell you before the election and I perfectly well understand why not.
Suzanne
@Chris:
Care is an inherently feminine task/quality in this worldview. And, as such, is devalued. In some cases, to literally having no value.
Ishiyama
@TBone: There are a few federal statutes that might be considered by a U.S. Grand Jury, too.
TBone
@Suzanne: so very, very true and shamedly so. It can be one of the most difficult jobs that exists. We will change that stereotype that’s been entrenched by the patriarchy.
TBone
@Ishiyama: AWESOME
So that’s why they cancelled their visit to Springfield!
Matt McIrvin
@Baud:
Unreasonable to expect more of a human electorate.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Agencies in his own administration have found that Israel is blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israel is trying to start a war with Lebanon now. And yet he still steadfastly supports them. What if this costs us Michigan? Not to mention the horrifying loss of life
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s not a universal law that a winning campaign must be constantly fresh and exciting. It’s a function of the fact that half the electorate is unreachable and the fact that many who remain reachable demand constant stoking.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Partly it’s that in our political system, national election campaigns are immensely long (and there’s no way to really change that without moving to something like a parliamentary system–it’s the game-theoretic equilibrium). We don’t have a 30-day snap campaign.
BR
I’m looking forward to every thread not becoming about Biden’s Middle East policy. We live in a big country will a whole lot else going on. In my and the sooner we get a fresh Dem administration in there the better for everyone.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: There was a time when there were conservatives who thought of conservation as a piece of what they were for–I mean, it’s there in the name. Hunters and fishers are natural allies since what they love goes away if there’s no wilderness to do it in. But some kind of malign cultural alignment has erased all this.
Salty Sam
My youngest brother is a staunch conservative, and though he is good with family and close friends, he has always considered dealings with service staff to be a dominance contest. He has mellowed a bit as he has aged, but he always used to consider it a “win” if he could reduce a rental car agent or a hotel check-in staff to tears.
Asshole.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Teddy Roosevelt’s a fascinating study. He’s a gender studies professor’s dream come true whose whole life was driven by a pathological need to overcome the memories of when he was a weak and sick kid. A ton of that came out in exactly what we’d now recognize as right-wing ideology. But then he also turned out a conservationist, a trust-buster, an anti-corruption crusader, an advocate for direct election of senators…
raven
I once had to kill a badly injured possum with a shovel, it was rough.
SatanicPanic
OH NO
It’s telling that Dick Cheney will endorse her, but not this fucking guy.
Chris
@SatanicPanic:
Note that she’s not even promising to kill the filibuster, just remove it for this one particular instance (which is its own category of infuriating, but that’s another rant), but even that’s enough to prompt a non-endorsement.
Because, let’s be honest, he was never going to endorse her, and if it wasn’t this pretext it would’ve been something else.
TBone
@raven: 😔 it is
cruel to be kindkind to be cruel sometimes. It requires special fortitude. I’m glad you’re on our team!Matt McIrvin
@Chris: The political boundaries sure were drawn differently in those days.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
murdering pets – it’s always projection with those people
Matt McIrvin
@Salty Sam: I remember a lot of my dorm-mates in college thinking it was funny to trash the bathrooms in their own dormitory and leave it for the cleaning staff to clean up. I think to the extent they thought about it at all, they had some kind of childish attitude that getting one up on an adult was “punching up”, even though they weren’t little children any more.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@SatanicPanic:
Sentor Coal Baron: “Shame on her!”
Yeah, shame on her for trying to restore a fundamental right to half the population /s
JoyceH
My dogs sometimes bark in the yard. If my neighbor killed one of them for barking, I’d be the one under arrest, because the neighbor would be “beyond mortal justice” as they say.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
That shopping cart thing is one that really bugs me too. The market I most shop in has, right out the front door cart storage. It has marked off spaces in the middle of the parking areas to return carts to and still some people can not seem to grasp the concept of DON’T BE AN ASSHOLE TO THE REST OF US FOR NO REASON OTHER THAN YOU ARE AN ASSHOLE. AND LIKE IT. Some humans really seem to be unable to pocess any humanity whatsoever. It’s like they sold all they had for 89 cents one day. (If they didn’t want any humanity it’s likely that they couldn’t sell what little they had for much when they tried to get rid of it)
SatanicPanic
@Chris: True. It’s so stupid how these senators value these lame traditions. Although I can see how in his case he thought it was valuable- it was just another way to prevent anything getting done.
mr perfect
I don’t believe Roberts killed a pit bull. It was most likely a poodle. A pit bull vs Roberts with only a shovel, the pit bull would eat him alive.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Where this type of hypermasculine (dare one say “toxically masculine”) politics gets really intriguing is that if you go back a century to Teddy Roosevelt, the political boundaries are unrecognizable, but if you go back two centuries to Andrew Jackson, the political boundaries are perfectly familiar.
(Andrew Jackson was the real thing that Trump only cosplays at being, but their politics line up damn near perfectly).
It’s as though we’re going through cycles, they’re just really long cycles.
SatanicPanic
@Ruckus: One time I saw a couple push their car up to the trunk of their Benz, put all the groceries in their trunk, and then pull out forward and drove away. They didn’t even bother moving the cart out of the way of the next person that might want to park there.
That had to be a pair of the shittiest people the world has ever seen.
Other MJS
C’mon, it’s not as if they ate those dogs.
Suzanne
@Salty Sam:
🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
even though they weren’t little children any more.
Yes they are. Small, little children in adult bodies. Haven’t grown up to anywhere near adulthood. They may have aged into adulthood but grown into it? No way, no how. We likely all know or have met humans that qualify for this segment of humanity.
Harrison Wesley
So many are outraged by the savage cruelties visited on household pets. Yet somewhere a sofa is quietly weeping, and no one says a word.
Suzanne
@Ruckus: The bushes-overhanging-the-sidewalk thing makes me C R A Z Y. I see disabled people, parents with strollers, people carrying groceries, etc. forced to walk in the street….. and these douchebags won’t keep the sidewalk clear. Pittsburgh sidewalks are already narrow, Phoenix sidewalks get overhung by spiky fucken plants.
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The current war between Israel and Hezbollah was started by Hezbollah last October 8. Israel did not attack Hezbollah but Hezbollah decided to throw in with Hamas anyway.
Lebanon’s government had no say in Hezbollah’s decision to start this war, and neither did the Lebanese people. They cannot force Hezbollah to comply with the UN Security Council mandate ordering it to withdraw its armed forces north of the Litani River. Hezbollah outguns the Lebanese Army, and its allies’ and own members in Parliament can paralyze Lebanon’s civil government.
This Security Council resolution, No. 7601, ratified the ceasefire that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Instead of obeying it, as of 2022 Hezbollah had imported over 125,000 rockets from Iran and staged many of them south of the Litani. That number is from Al Jazeera which is a fairly objective source, and other analysts agree with it. Hezbollah imported more and larger missiles since then. Again, the Lebanese government and people had no say in the matter.
Hezbollah can end this war anytime they agree to stop shooting rockets at Israel and pull what’s left of their forces on the border back across the Litani River. That would in no way hurt the people of Lebanon, only help them.
Iran had no right to drag Lebanon into its “Axis of Resistance.” That Iranian project has cost the region many times the misery and bloodshed caused by Israel. Many Westerners do not understand this because they only pay atrention to the region when Israel attacks someone. In effect, Arab blood is cheap when Israel isn’t the one shedding it.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: One difference between Jackson and Trump is that Jackson, for all his genocidal racism and general crankiness, does seem to have been genuinely big on the expansion of (white male) democracy, and Trump clearly does not give a shit about it except to the extent he can imagine the people are on his side and complain that someone cheated when they’re not.
K-Mo
Another reminder that these people are the heroes of their own stories, no matter how nefarious they are in the global telling.
japa21
@RevRick:
You beat me to that point. Dominion does not mean domination. I am not an expert in ancient Hebrew, but I believe the word used for dominion implies, as you say stewardship and guardianship. God gave man dominion over his creation to be caretakers of it, not to do whatever the heck they wanted.
It’s the same misunderstanding they have when you bring up Christ’s preaching of taking care of others and why the government should be involved in so many things. They say Christ was talking about individuals and not the government. In fact, Christ was merely extending the Old Testament, which did talk about the responsibilities of rulers to take care of the unfortunate, to the individual. It wasn’t an either or proposition. It was the responsibility of both government and individuals.
Steve LaBonne
@Harrison Wesley: Stop sectional abuse!
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I am not really sure what you want me to say. Biden is no longer running.
Salty Sam
Red flags? For what condition?
I did call him an asshole. He is my (adopted) brother and he has some very admirable traits for which I love him. But he also has an asshole side, very much a toxic dominance thing that I find absolutely deplorable. I will not excuse or condone it.
Steve LaBonne
@mr perfect: Pitties who haven’t been abused in their “training” are gentle, affectionate dogs.
The Pale Scot
A little Glyphosate will clean that right up
Capri
@Matt McIrvin: I agree. Folks in the country understand that those pork chops and steaks don’t magically appear in the grocery store out of the air.
Something I find interesting is that people become less and less concerned about animal welfare the further the food in question is from the source. There is a lot of concern about the welfare of milk cows when buying a gallon of milk, absolutely no thougth of it when buying a carton of yougurt.
In the rural areas I’ve been to, when dogs killing livestock are a problem the mantra is: “Shoot, shovel, and shut up.”
japa21
@Omnes Omnibus: Yep, I’m not going to vote for him in November either. Plus I don’t like his Ukraine policy.
In all seriousness, I was at a semi-family reunion a few weeks ago. Two Republicans and 16 good people. Actually, neither of the Republicans would even come close to considering Trump and both will vote for Harris. Also, they married into the family.
Anyway, my older brother and I were discussing Biden and events leading to his dropping out and how we viewed his Presidency. We disagreed on one thing; I felt Biden could still have won and he didn’t. We did agree that on the whole, his Presidency was remarkably good with only two blemishes, Ukraine and the Middle East.
Ruckus
@SatanicPanic:
Naw, not the shittiest. Shitty, sure I mean having zero concern for the rest of us is shitty. But there are others that make them seem not bad at all. The last ship’s captain I had in the USN was a prime example of the breed. Pompous, arrogant, seemingly dumb as a box of rocks (he wasn’t, he just worked hard at making you think so) He’d wanted an assignment to the Pentagon but no one above him wanted him within thousands of miles of the place. I got assigned to this ship after hospital and temp duty, for my last 5 months of USN life. He should have been perp walked off the back end of a ship in the middle of an ocean, Pacific or Atlantic, just for being himself. When one was discharged from the USN one had to get every officer above themselves, up to second in command to sign their discharge paper. When I was given a surprise 5 month early discharge I had to do this and got to the second in command who gave me crap for getting out early. I stood there for a moment – with my signed paper – and had to listen to him berate me. I composed a rebuttal that could not be used against me but that told him how compete an ass he and his boss were and that not having to serve under them any longer was a life bonus that I would remember to my last day. That was over 50 yrs ago. Remember it like it was yesterday. Absolute best day in the USN. And I got to see a lot of the world that I otherwise would never see. At the end of the day I can’t say it was a good time but it did have moments.
geg6
@Salty Sam:
Well, I can tell you for sure, he’s eaten or drunk a lot of spit (or worse) if he’s pulled that shit in restaurant or bar. Sorry to tell him, the servers in such a situation have power that not even their bosses know.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
What difference does it make whether he’s still running or not? He’s still the President and still making decisions on foreign policy towards I/P.
You could criticize Biden and his administration for actual failure of policy
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Chris: that’s both interesting & really scary
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I could, but I don’t see how that helps anything. What would you like me to say and how would my saying it change anything? Harris remains the better choice even for those who prioritize Gaza over everything else. As Biden would have been.
cain
@Geminid: Excellent point. Thanks for pointing this out.
I was telling my brother that Israel had every right to strike against them because they are a goddam terrorist organization. It is nothing like Gaza.
I’m not big on them using C4 in pagers and killing innocent Lebanese people though but that’s the play Hezbollah decided. I’m not sure how the Lebanese people are going to deal with this, but I feel bad for them.
AWOL
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Horrifically. Guess what?—don’t vote for him. //
AWOL
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Again, I encourage you not to vote for him. There’s this intriguing candidate named Kamala Harris. Perhaps you may want to look into her? //
Geminid
@cain: I have mixed feelings about those pager attacks because I do not consider Hezbollah in the way I do Hamas. Hezbollah may be a drug-running mafia that helps keep Lebanon a chaotic and dysfunctional nation, but I do not believe they would descend to the vicious level Hamas did on October 7.
But Hezbollah certainly caused more than its share of bloodshed and misery while fighting for Assad in Syria, and Palestinians hold them responsible for the deaths of many thousands of their brethren in Syria. After Hezbollah announced the names of leaders killed in Israel’s airstrike in Beirut last Thursday, I saw some Palestinians on social media pause their denunciations of Israeli brutality long enough to celebrate the deaths.
One of those leaders, Ibrahim Aqil, helped execute the 1983 Marine Corps barracks bombing that killed 240 American servicemen. So did Fuad Shukr who Israel killed last month. Back then, they and Iran used this “success” to unite various resistance groups under the banner of Hezbollah. So as far as I’m concerned those two guys got what was coming to them. I’m not so sure about the rest.
sab
@Steve LaBonne: My 60 pound pitbull lets a couple of 10 pound cats smack her around when she gets too lively.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: This seems to be impossible to grasp for a lot of people.
Ruckus
@japa21:
Humans often have 2 concepts of government.
1. It is there to screw everyone out of every possible penny.
2. Why doesn’t government do what I want?
Most people do have a difficult time understanding that we are a free nation that has in many cases fewer to far fewer roadblocks than what many did when this one was formed. Which is why it was a lot different than many (most?) nations of the time. Then it was small and racism was tolerated for most people with the right/light shade of skin. But that was not freedom. That was racism, pure and simple. Racism does not fit within the concept and meaning of what the founding principles state. That ALL of us are equal. That’s what the paper states. Everything else is bullshit. Racism, sexism are a billion percent wrong. They weren’t before the paper was signed. They should have been from day fucking one. Fifty plus years ago it pissed me off that I could get drafted to fight for this country when we had racism and sexism run rampant. We were supposed to be better than that. Yes we are getting there, and no we are not all the way there yet. Over 200 yrs and we aren’t there. Humanity can be shit when it wants to. Now I have to say that when I was in the USN over 1/2 a century ago they had made a pretty good attempt at upholding that concept. I did see once at Long Beach Navy Station 2 low rated enlisted men make rather inappropriate passes at 2 women who out ranked them as they were walking by. I heard in my time in the USN, people getting read the riot act, but those 2 woman did the best job I’ve heard in my entire life. Those 2 were lucky that was the end of this, because it could have cost them a lot more. Many learn this type of thing because they have a mistaken concept that they are not equal, they are above whatever it is that they don’t like or what they want, which this instance was.
We have limits to our freedom and one of those limits is that we can’t take away freedom from others.
prostratedragon
@different-church-lady: The most alarming thing about that. And in the euphoria and understandable relief over VP Harris’s momentum, I don’t think the lesson has sunk in where it needs to. Something to watch going forward.
Ruckus
@japa21:
As someone not all that far behind Joe Biden or even shitforbrains age I believe that as good a human as Joe Biden is, he made a very positive and really good choice not to run again. He is a very good man and if it was him or shitforbrains I would vote for him in a heartbeat. But we all age out of work, no matter what that work is. It may be a different age for each of us but if we get old we either don’t want to or can’t actually pull our weight at a job. And being president is a rather important job. To say the least. I give Joe Biden credit galore because he sees this. And shitforbrains does not see anything, other than the inside of his own ass. If you think the outside is bad, imagine what the inside is like. (You might want to have a barf bag handy if you do….)
StringOnAStick
@SatanicPanic: I watched a thin blonde with way too much filler and obvious plastic surgery push her cart 6′ out of the fancy grocery store, pull her bag out and leave the cart in the way of everyone else exiting the store. The cart rack was 3′ to her left but she couldn’t be bothered. I watched her get into her Tesla and block the exit until she could leave the parking lot. Truly an example of remarkable entitlement.
Quinerly
Glad to see this get front page treatment.
First thing I read at 5:30 AM.
We used to have a commenter from Las Cruces, NM. Sure hope he pops in.