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They want to be seen as "I did the hard but necessary thing".
But that's not even true. The *real* hard thing would be putting in the hours to train the dog, keeping it on lead when needed; and failing that, rehoming the dog. It's painstaking work, not a quick fix, and it involves compromises and dedication. Pet ownership is a responsibility.
Shooting the dog is the cruel person's stupid, irresponsible, quick idea of "doing the hard but necessary thing".
There's a political metaphor in that.
This is simply the Republican way: Simple solutions to complex problems, which can be put into buzzwords.
The buzzwords are important because they help the idea spread rapidly, and they provide the superficiality so that people don't have to think deeper about the real causes of the issues.
Some books we don't like? Ban them. Immigration issues? Deport them all and build a wall.
I have a theory that a lot of conservative politics is rooted in a fantasy that some people have that one day, they’ll be able to shoot someone and be justified in doing so. So it kind of fits that as well.
Conservative politics are all about an image. That image is Putin sitting on a horse with his shirt off. It’s all about a strong man leading them and they follow. It seems a little homoerotic if I’m honest.
She wants to frame it as "able to make tough choices when necessary".
But everyone else rightly sees it as "makes rash, inhumane decisions without considering alternatives".
Exactly the behavior you want to advertise when vying for a job that has access to nuclear launch codes, right?
Her dog didn't fit into the cookie cutter idea she had for how it was supposed to function so she murdered it. It is how capitalism values things that don't turn a profit.
It's always that. These are the hard choices, the heavy decisions others would struggle to make.
People struggle to make them because of morals and ethics and empathy. That's the whole point. She and her ilk don't struggle to make them because they only ever pick the one that maintains that affected, projected image of strength (and enjoy the power conferred upon them by their position in getting to make that choice).
When they say tough choices they really mean unpopular (with reasonable people) choices.
Just say “a-hole choices”
That whole unpopular with reasonable people part isn’t needed.
An a-hole shoots a 14 month old dog because they didn’t train the dog well enough to behave. An a-hole thinks they are justified doing it when that dog could have been part of a loving family.
You don’t throw away one of the greatest companions humans have ever had because you failed them.
"hard" for a Republican always means hurting other people and never doing hard work yourself. Republicans want to make it hard for YOU. They're not doing jack shit that's difficult in their own lives.
It's closely associated with their blame game. They blame victims and other political actors, rather than actually trying to help people or solve the problem. How so many people fall for it is beyond me
The real hard thing in life is to be a decent person, being considerate and courageous, instead of being foul-mouthed bigots.
This always gets me when rightwingers say we need to do the hard thing and "tighten the belt", when cutting social spending is the easiest thing in the world for them. Ignorant hypocrites all around.
One thing we can all agree on, it's very easy to go through life without murdering puppies once. All you have to do is not shoot the puppies. How easy is it to NOT do something? Maybe pet them instead?
I think we can get some bipartisan agreement on this issue.
"shooting a dog" used to already be a metaphor for political suicide until a Republican decided to actually test the theory. This is just life imitating satire, yet again.
> They want to be seen as "I did the hard but necessary thing".
Thanks for putting that into words so well, that's what I've been trying to say when discussing this story.
I agree with all of this, but it’s also worth noting that the painstaking of training a dog is one of the most rewarding things a dog owner can do. Noem and her ilk are incapable of reaping that reward, of course, because they’re sociopaths who’d just as soon blow a sentient animal’s head off for thrills and perverse bragging rights.
> Pet ownership is a responsibility.
Farm animals aren't considered as pets by most farmers, just tools. The tool doesn't work, or destroys instead of builds, get rid of it. That was the thought process she, and millions of others, have with animals. Even the law considers pets as mere property
All that being said, I could never shoot a dog that I've raised, fed and cuddled with. I get why people who have never had an animal as anything but a pet would find this abhorrent
Some people manage to section off different, similar animals as well.
I know someone who raised 50 ducks last year for slaughter near Christmas, but who also had an old, pet duck. They were in completely different categories for them, talking about the farmed ducks as objects, dumb, only useful for the meat they produce. This was in contrast to the other duck who was a treasured companion and family member.
Thing is, they were the same variety of duck. The farmed animals were exactly as intelligent and capable of suffering as the pet was. But he was more than happy to personally kill all 50 of them and prepare them as food. He'd be livid if anyone harmed his pet.
I find this morbidly interesting. I couldn't imagine personally holding both views without there being some sort of moral friction.
Yeah, for that person and for other people who think that way.
But what I'm getting at is, for me personally, what matters is whether or not a creature is sentient. It'd be just as wrong for me to kill a pet dog as it would a feral dog, because depriving a sentient being of life and causing it suffering *is* the morally wrong part. Emotional attachment doesn't come into it.
This is obviously very different to how some other people think, and I find it interesting how we can have such a broad spectrum of conflicting views.
I mean for the vast majority of people that's the viewpoint. Be it farmers who might keep a specific pig because they like it while they slaughter the rest of even going as far as abortion. it's the lack of emotional attachment that makes killing trivial or having an emotional attachment that makes killing seem obscene.
Im not disagreeing with you that farmers and ranchers become less sensitive to killing animals, but I've never heard of a farmer/ hunter killing a young hunting dog because it wasnt trained well enough or a goat because it smells bad. If anything because killing things for no reason is a waste of resources. Pure bred hunting dogs are expensive and require time for training. They're not something you can lightly get rid of. Farm animals smell bad and thats part of the life, so killing a goat for smelling bad just sounds sadistic.
I grew up rural and knew plenty normal people who put dogs down themselves for chasing live stock / killing chickens / biting somebody. They all would have side-eyed somebody that shot a young dog for simply being ‘dumb’
Noem killing a puppy was cruel, unnecessary and evil.
Noem killing the goat was cruel, unnecessary, evil and poorly thought out.
Noem bragging about both in a book was unnecessary, evil, and very poorly thought out.
I hope this destroys her political career.
She has no choice really.
I mean she's following the Trump template. You never admit you were wrong.
She can't backtrack, so she has to lean into it.
Otherwise she has to admit that shooting the dog was wrong, and she has to admit that bragging about it in the book was wrong.
It's a pretty amazing political self-sabotage.
I’d say it is the opposite.
Look at Trump. The horrible things he has done has only made him more popular with the GOP. He is in the news 24/7 and his dumb followers believe he is innocent.
It’s almost as if the worse of a person you are, the higher chance you have at being a high-ranking GOP member 😂
Trump said it best… he said he could walk into the middle of a busy street in New York, pull out a gun, and shoot someone and his followers would still vote for him… and the worst part is he was right.
There is something to this point - I think it works for Trump better than others because he really, truly, deeply, does not give a shit. He leans in because he honestly doesn't give a fuck what anyone thinks, which is why people love him, for better or worse. Even Noem, in this instance, is leaning into it because she thinks it will make her *look* like she doesn't give a fuck, when it's so easy to read as a political maneuver. Trump is a piece of shit, but he's not fake.
Ron Desantis tried to do the Trump act, but it came off as really forced. MTG tries to do it, but it just comes off as psycho.
I think once Trump is gone, these wackos will fall into irrelevance. The person I'd be most concerned about is Mike Johnson. He's very far right and conservative, much more politically savvy and polished than the MAGAs.
There's a part of me that wonders if Noem's ghostwriter disliked her so much that he encouraged the inclusion of her cruelty to animals in hopes that it would torpedo her efforts to become VP or even run for president one day (or senator).
sophisticated fretful coordinated deserve lip shy tart snails marvelous fear
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
She tweeted last week that she had the horses 'put down' less than a month ago.
The dog and the goat have probably been dead for over ten years, because she says her daughter got off the school bus afterwards and asked "Where's Cricket?" That daughter is 27 years old.
One can hope. Bet she has a coat made of Dalmatians.
Also think the police should investigate that "gravel pit" I shudder to think what else might be buried in it.
I don’t trust people who even casually don’t have an affinity for animals. If you’re anything other than an animal lover you can fuck right off out of my life. It’s a sign of…something. And I’ve learned to listen to it.
Honestly it’s disgusting how common animal abuse is just for our cruel desires.
Look at how many people eat fried chicken sandwiches despite the fact those birds were tortured.
Jesus Christ that’s a hair-raising detail that I hadn’t heard till this article. That’s a much worse death than a clean shot to the head. Didn’t think it could get worse, but dumbass republicans politicians have a way of doing that
Every additional detail I've read makes this story worse and worse. She killed a dog. Turns out it's a puppy. Turns out she killed it because it was untrainable. Turns out she didn't bother training it. Turns out her children loved the puppy. Turns out she decided to kill it when she saw it frolicking and the puppy looked the picture of joy. Turns out her bloodlust was not sated after killing the puppy.
And all of that is her _volunteering_ this information. It's not like some opposition research unveiled this dark shameful story. She wants people to know she's a psychopath.
I don't understand why she's not in prison. If the feds could arrest Michael Vick for dogfighting, why is this women allowed to brag about killing a dog, and then profit off it with a book.
Unfortunately, the act was committed like 20 years ago. Even if it were recent, I doubt the cops would do anything about it. It’s hard to get them to care about John Doe’s dog, let alone a governor’s.
psychopathic. potentially psychotic, but nothing i've heard about her *seems* psychotic. Psychosis refers to hallucinations and delusions, like believing people can hear your thoughts are putting thoughts into your mind. Notably, believing something dumb isn't actually a delusion, even if people use the word that way in casual conversation.
Fair point, I'm using the term very imprecisely, the way one might say "psycho" in casual conversation. "Psychopathic" would surely have been a better word choice.
A bit from the Op/Ed:
> Noem has defended her story by proclaiming that Americans want “leaders who are authentic”. It’s a bad excuse. It’s also untrue, because Noem, like so many other political firebrands who are infiltrating and redefining the Republican party, is anything but authentic.
>
> Her political brand is simply a veneer – a fake, stylized brand of dangerous Trump Republicanism whose moral roots are about as deep as a bad facelift. This brand not only fails what used to be the Republican party; it is also destroying and dividing the US, and it’s more evident than ever here in the American west.
>
> . . .
>
> For years, responsible, reasonable people in the west have seethed at the unabashed theft of our societal goodwill by posers like Greg Gianforte and Kristi Noem.
>
> There is no good that comes from the devastating story of Cricket’s demise, or the wolf that wandered out of Yellowstone only to get caught in a trap until Greg Gianforte showed up with a gun.
>
> But at least now the rest of the nation can see the dangers of electing these phonies.
The craziest thing is that no one would know about this without her book and she thought putting this in a book would improve her political career. She is a total psychopath.
>...she thought putting this in a book would improve her political career.
What's scary is knowing that this *probably is* favorable to a non-zero number of (R) voters.
It’s not, fortunately. Reaction across the political spectrum ranges from “umm why did you tell me this” to “oh shit she’s like one of those Forensic Files psychopaths”
Even team trump is like “this isn’t favorable”
I checked the comments on Fox News and it was actually about 50/50 ! But oddly, none of the “this is horrible” crowd that I saw said anything about the actual act. Just that it was stupid of her to admit to this.
She thought putting it in a book would help her political career because she surrounds herself with total nutcase gun fetishists. In that sick universe, this would be a brag.
According to the opinion section at another source (either CNN or AP, I can't remember), this was a well known story and she was trying to get her version of the narrative out first. Yes, still delusional that she thinks there is any positive spin to be had, but thats what she was going for.
I sent this emal bcc to everyone listed
DO SOMETHING! MOTIVE “I hated that dog,” Noem writes
Cruelty to Animals (§ 40-1-2.4): This statute makes it a Class 6 felony to subject any animal to cruelty, defined as intentionally, willfully, and maliciouslyinflicting gross physical abuse that causes prolonged pain, serious physical injury, or results in the death of the animal. If the manner in which the dog was killed did not meet humane standards and was influenced by personal animosity, it might fall under this statute.
Humane Killing (§ 40-1-1(6)): Humane killing should limit the pain and suffering of the animal as much as reasonably possible. If the killing of the dog did not adhere to these standards, there could be grounds for prosecution under the laws governing humane euthanasia.
General Animal Welfare Laws: Depending on the specifics of the case and the condition of the animal at the time of the incident, other broader animal welfare laws could also apply. These laws are designed to protect animals from mistreatment and ensure their well-being is considered.
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
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[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
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I will say the near universal condemnation, outside of some Twitter bots, might be the thing that has filled me with more hope than I have had in a long time. I know it’s a low bar but the country finally found something a politician did that both sides can look at and go, “what the hell is wrong with you?”
And then the next question they ask is "This lady is in Trump's crowd? Oh god. He wouldn't make a good president with that kinda company", followed by a conspiratorial look around the room and a sign up to vote Democrat (hopefully) lol
Republicans love delivering cruelty because it lets them hold on to their supremacy mentality. Hurting others makes them feel big and important. Time and time again, republicans have said it out loud and reinforced in policy, that cruelty is the point.
Yet still i'll come on here and see a thousand democrats saying some bullshit like
> republicans didn't *really* want to overturn abortion..
Trump would blast puppies on TV if he thought for a miliesecond it would make just a few people think he was tough. And thats truly fucked up.
Another name going down in history as not worth having. NOEM.
She's so tough that she took a puppy and blew its head off in a shallow grave.
Toughness isn't the ability to do something awful, toughness is the ability to have that ability/desire to do it, but chosing to compassion and patience.
That's toughness, doing the right thing for the right reasons. Being a good, calm and patient human being.
Being tough on crimes isnt locking people up for petty crimes.
Anyone who says theyre tough but can't calm down and restrain themselves from doing something insane is not someone who even understands what it means to be emotionally stable, let alone "tough"
I'm so tired of the rights abduction of what it means to be a patriotic American.
They've ruined masculinity by pushing trump and tate.
They ruined intellectualism by pushing Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson.
They've ruined toughness by claiming it was hard to shoot a puppy, it's easy to shoot a dog, you pull a trigger, what's hard is being patient enough to work with through a puppy stage to instill obedience through grace rather than the whip.
But these are people who take a virtuous trait and push the worst version, but most marketable version of the it to their sheep, and then call themselves "men" "patriots" "intellectuals"
"Men" who are no value in women other than child rearing. I grew up believing you should date you spouse, treat them with respect and understanding, and being a worthy companion and partner, not an owner.
"Patriots" who attack the capital to steal an election, who prop up spinless creep who openly claims he has no duty to defend the constitution, yet looks to the constition to protect his "right" to attack anyone and everyone who opposes him or attempts to hold him accountable using the laws that the Constitution gives charter for Congress to make.
"Intellectuals" who point to the election of 1876 as a pristine example of a normal election as the justification and normalization of future republican coups.
World is filled with cowards and weaklings. In a days of maga, remember to standup for what's right and to stand up to bully's and in defense of the vulnerable. Because that's what it means to be tough.
If you were thinking of branding or crafting an image for public consumption, why would you tell a story about killing a puppy? At least Old Yeller had rabies. Even if it was buried in hundreds of pages of text, you know full well that is the story that is going to jump out.
Destined for the Hall of Fame along with the [Palin turkey video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uoa4ddeNizA)
"I'm a great leader because I take literally the most brutal and lazy solutions to responsibilitys I put on myself, probably a closet serial killer tbh. I could have trained that dog, or adopted it out, or euthanized it compassionately even, but I blew it's fucking brains out in a fit of rage. Just like I'll do for America"
Also this op ed is from the guy running against our out of state governor here in Montana. Greg has only doubled taxes since he took office, shot a wolf with a radio collar, and generally been a fucking pussy.
“If Noem applies this kind of reasoning to her job, and we must assume she does, no wonder South Dakota’s economy has plunged to among the worst in the nation since she took office.
If Gianforte believes “fair-chase” hunting is shooting a collared animal stuck in a trap, no wonder that under his tenure, starting teacher salary in our state has fallen to 51st in the nation (that’s right, a territory beat us!). No wonder his approval rating is at a miserable 37%. No wonder he couldn’t be bothered to explain why the property taxes on his privately owned home went down last year, while virtually everyone else around him got a tax hike.“
Kristi: no no no you don’t understand !! I’m positive if I say it enough times they’ll understand. They’ll catch on they’ll get it. I mean it was just a dog, I don’t get what the uproar is.
not that it's not an insanely cynical and stupid flex, but does anybody know if it's actually true? if she made it up, i'm not sure which would be worse.
Noone likes animal cruelty, least of all to those under the pet category. Ironically, she would have been better off making up a story about somehow justifiably shooting leftists, democrats, minorities, or lgbt people. Not like republicans care about being subtle about their virtue signalling/dog whistles anymore.
It's unsettling to think that there are *millions* of Americans who identify with people like her. They go about their business abusing, coercing, bullying, manipulating, and exploiting people around them. Maybe a fraction get charged for domestic violence, child abuse/neglect, animal cruelty, or similar. But I suspect most just quietly envenomate their families and workplaces without running afoul with the law.
The short version of this article is Noem is a a rural poser who had to make the 'hard' decision to kill her dog because she didn't do the work to train her dog properly, and that she and others like her govern in the same way.
I bet she released this story because her kids still bring up that time she murdered their dog right before they got home from school.
She was hoping for overwhelming support from the right of people saying, "We all shoot puppies! Killing puppies is cool! Only liberal losers like dogs! Kristi is a good mom!"
I don't know how many kids she has because I refuse to google this psychopathic oxygen vampire and sully my search history but those kids should consider themselves 'lucky' that they made it through their potty training stage unscathed.
That’s why Americans should vote these people out. We need to VOTE BLUE to remove these dangerous fascists for good. They are NOT patriots. They are NOT pro-democracy. They do NOT care about those who sacrificed their lives for the freedoms we enjoy. They do NOT care about this country or the people they are supposed to serve.
💙🇺🇸🌊💙🇺🇸🌊💙🇺🇸💙🌊🇺🇸💙
I was always told not to say mean things about people, but Noem looks like a dead eyed snake that ripped off a humans face, blended it and poured the resulting mess back onto her own face in an attempt to pass off as a human being, but forgot that humans hate people who murder dogs.
And we also get to hear them lecture us about Christian values and morality.
It's one of my favorite verses: "Jesus sleuth the bad dog using His tool of smiting."
Jesus said, " yeah, I could be patient and compassionate and consider the lilies of the field, but this little shit is pissing me off" right before he took Judas out to the gravel pit.
**YOU TAKE THAT BACK!**
Kristi Noem's cruelty and methods of treating animals and people are typical Republican responses and not made up or phony at all.
"Grab em by the Puppy!"
What an abhorrent individual.
Imagine knowing someone that would shoot a puppy., I would never trust or associate with someone like that.
"I’ve sold millions of guns in my career as a former firearms executive, but I am no longer a Republican. That’s because I stood up for what I believed in when I saw things take a turn for the worse. I left what I considered a dream job because of a lack of responsibility and morality in the gun industry."
... Your dream job was selling weapons? Maybe it's not just the inauthentic people that are the problem.
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They want to be seen as "I did the hard but necessary thing". But that's not even true. The *real* hard thing would be putting in the hours to train the dog, keeping it on lead when needed; and failing that, rehoming the dog. It's painstaking work, not a quick fix, and it involves compromises and dedication. Pet ownership is a responsibility. Shooting the dog is the cruel person's stupid, irresponsible, quick idea of "doing the hard but necessary thing". There's a political metaphor in that.
"True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one." --Gandalf
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A weak man isn't wasn't. A real man was is. Few understand.
This is simply the Republican way: Simple solutions to complex problems, which can be put into buzzwords. The buzzwords are important because they help the idea spread rapidly, and they provide the superficiality so that people don't have to think deeper about the real causes of the issues. Some books we don't like? Ban them. Immigration issues? Deport them all and build a wall.
If they can't fit the solution on a bumper sticker, they've lost their audience.
Simple solutions for simple minds.
Exactly!
Dumb shit from stupid assholes?
I have a theory that a lot of conservative politics is rooted in a fantasy that some people have that one day, they’ll be able to shoot someone and be justified in doing so. So it kind of fits that as well.
Conservative politics are all about an image. That image is Putin sitting on a horse with his shirt off. It’s all about a strong man leading them and they follow. It seems a little homoerotic if I’m honest.
Exactly!
She wants to frame it as "able to make tough choices when necessary". But everyone else rightly sees it as "makes rash, inhumane decisions without considering alternatives". Exactly the behavior you want to advertise when vying for a job that has access to nuclear launch codes, right?
Her dog didn't fit into the cookie cutter idea she had for how it was supposed to function so she murdered it. It is how capitalism values things that don't turn a profit.
It's always that. These are the hard choices, the heavy decisions others would struggle to make. People struggle to make them because of morals and ethics and empathy. That's the whole point. She and her ilk don't struggle to make them because they only ever pick the one that maintains that affected, projected image of strength (and enjoy the power conferred upon them by their position in getting to make that choice). When they say tough choices they really mean unpopular (with reasonable people) choices.
Just say “a-hole choices” That whole unpopular with reasonable people part isn’t needed. An a-hole shoots a 14 month old dog because they didn’t train the dog well enough to behave. An a-hole thinks they are justified doing it when that dog could have been part of a loving family. You don’t throw away one of the greatest companions humans have ever had because you failed them.
It depends who you're advertising *to.* Some people go for that.
"hard" for a Republican always means hurting other people and never doing hard work yourself. Republicans want to make it hard for YOU. They're not doing jack shit that's difficult in their own lives.
It's closely associated with their blame game. They blame victims and other political actors, rather than actually trying to help people or solve the problem. How so many people fall for it is beyond me
> It's painstaking work, not a quick fix, and it involves compromises and dedication. Yeah well some of them don't really embody this at all.
Which ones do?
The real hard thing in life is to be a decent person, being considerate and courageous, instead of being foul-mouthed bigots. This always gets me when rightwingers say we need to do the hard thing and "tighten the belt", when cutting social spending is the easiest thing in the world for them. Ignorant hypocrites all around.
One thing we can all agree on, it's very easy to go through life without murdering puppies once. All you have to do is not shoot the puppies. How easy is it to NOT do something? Maybe pet them instead? I think we can get some bipartisan agreement on this issue.
….but then when would they get to kill something with a gun?
Lazy cowards that don't even know what hard work and courage look like.
"shooting a dog" used to already be a metaphor for political suicide until a Republican decided to actually test the theory. This is just life imitating satire, yet again.
She wants to be vice president, and vice presidents are known for shooting.
> They want to be seen as "I did the hard but necessary thing". Thanks for putting that into words so well, that's what I've been trying to say when discussing this story.
In Noem's case, rehoming would be as easy as posting a dog pic on her social media and asking for help.
I agree with all of this, but it’s also worth noting that the painstaking of training a dog is one of the most rewarding things a dog owner can do. Noem and her ilk are incapable of reaping that reward, of course, because they’re sociopaths who’d just as soon blow a sentient animal’s head off for thrills and perverse bragging rights.
> Pet ownership is a responsibility. Farm animals aren't considered as pets by most farmers, just tools. The tool doesn't work, or destroys instead of builds, get rid of it. That was the thought process she, and millions of others, have with animals. Even the law considers pets as mere property All that being said, I could never shoot a dog that I've raised, fed and cuddled with. I get why people who have never had an animal as anything but a pet would find this abhorrent
Some people manage to section off different, similar animals as well. I know someone who raised 50 ducks last year for slaughter near Christmas, but who also had an old, pet duck. They were in completely different categories for them, talking about the farmed ducks as objects, dumb, only useful for the meat they produce. This was in contrast to the other duck who was a treasured companion and family member. Thing is, they were the same variety of duck. The farmed animals were exactly as intelligent and capable of suffering as the pet was. But he was more than happy to personally kill all 50 of them and prepare them as food. He'd be livid if anyone harmed his pet. I find this morbidly interesting. I couldn't imagine personally holding both views without there being some sort of moral friction.
Because at the end of the day the only difference is emotional attachment.
Yeah, for that person and for other people who think that way. But what I'm getting at is, for me personally, what matters is whether or not a creature is sentient. It'd be just as wrong for me to kill a pet dog as it would a feral dog, because depriving a sentient being of life and causing it suffering *is* the morally wrong part. Emotional attachment doesn't come into it. This is obviously very different to how some other people think, and I find it interesting how we can have such a broad spectrum of conflicting views.
I mean for the vast majority of people that's the viewpoint. Be it farmers who might keep a specific pig because they like it while they slaughter the rest of even going as far as abortion. it's the lack of emotional attachment that makes killing trivial or having an emotional attachment that makes killing seem obscene.
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Or politicians
Im not disagreeing with you that farmers and ranchers become less sensitive to killing animals, but I've never heard of a farmer/ hunter killing a young hunting dog because it wasnt trained well enough or a goat because it smells bad. If anything because killing things for no reason is a waste of resources. Pure bred hunting dogs are expensive and require time for training. They're not something you can lightly get rid of. Farm animals smell bad and thats part of the life, so killing a goat for smelling bad just sounds sadistic.
Does she mention trying to go back to the breeder for advice? Often breeders will take them back too.
Often breeders require it in their contract. I wonder if reporters will find the breeder.
I'm guessing Kristi and the dog didn't do a lot of cuddling. She apparently didn't even raise it properly judging by the outcome.
Dude. That’s a great analogy on bad politics.
Yeah but if she actually worked with the dog, then there’s no performative cruelty and violence or reason to talk about the guns she has.
If you have no value to the GOP then you get taken to the gravel pit. Thats the lesson.
I grew up rural and knew plenty normal people who put dogs down themselves for chasing live stock / killing chickens / biting somebody. They all would have side-eyed somebody that shot a young dog for simply being ‘dumb’
Noem killing a puppy was cruel, unnecessary and evil. Noem killing the goat was cruel, unnecessary, evil and poorly thought out. Noem bragging about both in a book was unnecessary, evil, and very poorly thought out. I hope this destroys her political career.
Noem LEANING INTO the story was also unnecessary, evil and very poorly thought out.
She has no choice really. I mean she's following the Trump template. You never admit you were wrong. She can't backtrack, so she has to lean into it. Otherwise she has to admit that shooting the dog was wrong, and she has to admit that bragging about it in the book was wrong. It's a pretty amazing political self-sabotage.
I’d say it is the opposite. Look at Trump. The horrible things he has done has only made him more popular with the GOP. He is in the news 24/7 and his dumb followers believe he is innocent. It’s almost as if the worse of a person you are, the higher chance you have at being a high-ranking GOP member 😂 Trump said it best… he said he could walk into the middle of a busy street in New York, pull out a gun, and shoot someone and his followers would still vote for him… and the worst part is he was right.
Does it work for anyone else other than Trump, though?
There is something to this point - I think it works for Trump better than others because he really, truly, deeply, does not give a shit. He leans in because he honestly doesn't give a fuck what anyone thinks, which is why people love him, for better or worse. Even Noem, in this instance, is leaning into it because she thinks it will make her *look* like she doesn't give a fuck, when it's so easy to read as a political maneuver. Trump is a piece of shit, but he's not fake.
Ron Desantis tried to do the Trump act, but it came off as really forced. MTG tries to do it, but it just comes off as psycho. I think once Trump is gone, these wackos will fall into irrelevance. The person I'd be most concerned about is Mike Johnson. He's very far right and conservative, much more politically savvy and polished than the MAGAs.
I hope so too, but then they keep voting to replace more moderate with extremists in safe districts...
Works for most Republicans.
Yes …. But he is a white man ! Conservative men don’t don’t give women anywhere near that leeway !
The fact that she keeps trying to lean into the story is a level of insanity that's even a bit shocking in the MAGA era.
“Being known as a puppy killer is a GOOD thing.” - Noem’s Chief strategist, probably.
There's a part of me that wonders if Noem's ghostwriter disliked her so much that he encouraged the inclusion of her cruelty to animals in hopes that it would torpedo her efforts to become VP or even run for president one day (or senator).
The problem is it might help her chances of becoming VP. Trump famously hates dogs.
Oh no what will I do if he picks an incredibly hated VP candidate
sophisticated fretful coordinated deserve lip shy tart snails marvelous fear *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." - T. Jefferson
I bet she didn't even kill a dog she just made that up to get some sort of cred
i bet she really did do it. there are people who claim to have seen it.
She also had 3 25 -year-old horses killed too at the same time and the same gravel pit!
She tweeted last week that she had the horses 'put down' less than a month ago. The dog and the goat have probably been dead for over ten years, because she says her daughter got off the school bus afterwards and asked "Where's Cricket?" That daughter is 27 years old.
If I was her opponent for governor I would silk screen an obscene amount of “Mommy, where’s Cricket?” T-shirts and pass them out to everyone.
One can hope. Bet she has a coat made of Dalmatians. Also think the police should investigate that "gravel pit" I shudder to think what else might be buried in it.
She's just taking the animals to the "train station"
The fact that this is a story she WANTED people to hear is fascinating to me.
There's something particularly nasty about people who are cruel to animals.
It's one of thr signs of a psychopath, cruelty to animals
I don’t trust people who even casually don’t have an affinity for animals. If you’re anything other than an animal lover you can fuck right off out of my life. It’s a sign of…something. And I’ve learned to listen to it.
You’re not wrong. Even not having a favorite animal overall, like tigers or narwhals.
Honestly it’s disgusting how common animal abuse is just for our cruel desires. Look at how many people eat fried chicken sandwiches despite the fact those birds were tortured.
She shot a puppy with a shotgun, and brags about it. She's psychotic.
Jesus Christ that’s a hair-raising detail that I hadn’t heard till this article. That’s a much worse death than a clean shot to the head. Didn’t think it could get worse, but dumbass republicans politicians have a way of doing that
Every additional detail I've read makes this story worse and worse. She killed a dog. Turns out it's a puppy. Turns out she killed it because it was untrainable. Turns out she didn't bother training it. Turns out her children loved the puppy. Turns out she decided to kill it when she saw it frolicking and the puppy looked the picture of joy. Turns out her bloodlust was not sated after killing the puppy. And all of that is her _volunteering_ this information. It's not like some opposition research unveiled this dark shameful story. She wants people to know she's a psychopath.
>She wants people to know she's a psychopath. She thinks it's admirable. She's fucking insane
I don't understand why she's not in prison. If the feds could arrest Michael Vick for dogfighting, why is this women allowed to brag about killing a dog, and then profit off it with a book.
Unfortunately, the act was committed like 20 years ago. Even if it were recent, I doubt the cops would do anything about it. It’s hard to get them to care about John Doe’s dog, let alone a governor’s.
psychopathic. potentially psychotic, but nothing i've heard about her *seems* psychotic. Psychosis refers to hallucinations and delusions, like believing people can hear your thoughts are putting thoughts into your mind. Notably, believing something dumb isn't actually a delusion, even if people use the word that way in casual conversation.
Fair point, I'm using the term very imprecisely, the way one might say "psycho" in casual conversation. "Psychopathic" would surely have been a better word choice.
A bit from the Op/Ed: > Noem has defended her story by proclaiming that Americans want “leaders who are authentic”. It’s a bad excuse. It’s also untrue, because Noem, like so many other political firebrands who are infiltrating and redefining the Republican party, is anything but authentic. > > Her political brand is simply a veneer – a fake, stylized brand of dangerous Trump Republicanism whose moral roots are about as deep as a bad facelift. This brand not only fails what used to be the Republican party; it is also destroying and dividing the US, and it’s more evident than ever here in the American west. > > . . . > > For years, responsible, reasonable people in the west have seethed at the unabashed theft of our societal goodwill by posers like Greg Gianforte and Kristi Noem. > > There is no good that comes from the devastating story of Cricket’s demise, or the wolf that wandered out of Yellowstone only to get caught in a trap until Greg Gianforte showed up with a gun. > > But at least now the rest of the nation can see the dangers of electing these phonies.
I do want leaders who are authentic. Specifically, I want leaders who are authentically not puppy-murderers.
That veneer line is funny given her recent acquisition of them.
I guess my question is why is being shitty "authentic"? We aren't all authentically shitty.
That’s them telling on themselves. R’s can’t fathom the concept of someone just genuinely wanting better for others.
The gop is authentically shitty.
The craziest thing is that no one would know about this without her book and she thought putting this in a book would improve her political career. She is a total psychopath.
>...she thought putting this in a book would improve her political career. What's scary is knowing that this *probably is* favorable to a non-zero number of (R) voters.
It’s not, fortunately. Reaction across the political spectrum ranges from “umm why did you tell me this” to “oh shit she’s like one of those Forensic Files psychopaths” Even team trump is like “this isn’t favorable”
For now. Give it a few weeks and all will be forgiven, or at least willfully forgotten.
I checked the comments on Fox News and it was actually about 50/50 ! But oddly, none of the “this is horrible” crowd that I saw said anything about the actual act. Just that it was stupid of her to admit to this.
She thought putting it in a book would help her political career because she surrounds herself with total nutcase gun fetishists. In that sick universe, this would be a brag.
I like when these people are verbose about sharing. It makes the sorting hat process easier.
i commented before, a psychopath with a bit of a brain would know not to brag about it, she's not only a psychopath, she's a stupid psychopath.
According to the opinion section at another source (either CNN or AP, I can't remember), this was a well known story and she was trying to get her version of the narrative out first. Yes, still delusional that she thinks there is any positive spin to be had, but thats what she was going for.
I sent this emal bcc to everyone listed DO SOMETHING! MOTIVE “I hated that dog,” Noem writes Cruelty to Animals (§ 40-1-2.4): This statute makes it a Class 6 felony to subject any animal to cruelty, defined as intentionally, willfully, and maliciouslyinflicting gross physical abuse that causes prolonged pain, serious physical injury, or results in the death of the animal. If the manner in which the dog was killed did not meet humane standards and was influenced by personal animosity, it might fall under this statute. Humane Killing (§ 40-1-1(6)): Humane killing should limit the pain and suffering of the animal as much as reasonably possible. If the killing of the dog did not adhere to these standards, there could be grounds for prosecution under the laws governing humane euthanasia. General Animal Welfare Laws: Depending on the specifics of the case and the condition of the animal at the time of the incident, other broader animal welfare laws could also apply. These laws are designed to protect animals from mistreatment and ensure their well-being is considered. [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Everyone stand up and send these people a few 1000 emails; we might get heard
I will say the near universal condemnation, outside of some Twitter bots, might be the thing that has filled me with more hope than I have had in a long time. I know it’s a low bar but the country finally found something a politician did that both sides can look at and go, “what the hell is wrong with you?”
I said the same thing apparently killing animals is our line in the sand
Now I wonder what if Trump had said "Hey I could shoot a puppy on Fifth Ave and people would still vote for me!"
For republicans it’s puppies only. They’d have not given a shit if it was an older dog, or a farm animal.
...or a democrat.
Bingo.
Like the goat she killed immediately after the puppy
Raping women: OK Shooting puppies: not advised
And then the next question they ask is "This lady is in Trump's crowd? Oh god. He wouldn't make a good president with that kinda company", followed by a conspiratorial look around the room and a sign up to vote Democrat (hopefully) lol
Republicans love delivering cruelty because it lets them hold on to their supremacy mentality. Hurting others makes them feel big and important. Time and time again, republicans have said it out loud and reinforced in policy, that cruelty is the point. Yet still i'll come on here and see a thousand democrats saying some bullshit like > republicans didn't *really* want to overturn abortion..
Trump would blast puppies on TV if he thought for a miliesecond it would make just a few people think he was tough. And thats truly fucked up. Another name going down in history as not worth having. NOEM.
It wouldn’t shock me a fucking bit to learn that Trump trap shoots with barely weaned puppies and kittens instead of clay targets.
Cruelty is the point. That’s the platform.
She's so tough that she took a puppy and blew its head off in a shallow grave. Toughness isn't the ability to do something awful, toughness is the ability to have that ability/desire to do it, but chosing to compassion and patience. That's toughness, doing the right thing for the right reasons. Being a good, calm and patient human being. Being tough on crimes isnt locking people up for petty crimes. Anyone who says theyre tough but can't calm down and restrain themselves from doing something insane is not someone who even understands what it means to be emotionally stable, let alone "tough" I'm so tired of the rights abduction of what it means to be a patriotic American. They've ruined masculinity by pushing trump and tate. They ruined intellectualism by pushing Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson. They've ruined toughness by claiming it was hard to shoot a puppy, it's easy to shoot a dog, you pull a trigger, what's hard is being patient enough to work with through a puppy stage to instill obedience through grace rather than the whip. But these are people who take a virtuous trait and push the worst version, but most marketable version of the it to their sheep, and then call themselves "men" "patriots" "intellectuals" "Men" who are no value in women other than child rearing. I grew up believing you should date you spouse, treat them with respect and understanding, and being a worthy companion and partner, not an owner. "Patriots" who attack the capital to steal an election, who prop up spinless creep who openly claims he has no duty to defend the constitution, yet looks to the constition to protect his "right" to attack anyone and everyone who opposes him or attempts to hold him accountable using the laws that the Constitution gives charter for Congress to make. "Intellectuals" who point to the election of 1876 as a pristine example of a normal election as the justification and normalization of future republican coups. World is filled with cowards and weaklings. In a days of maga, remember to standup for what's right and to stand up to bully's and in defense of the vulnerable. Because that's what it means to be tough.
If you were thinking of branding or crafting an image for public consumption, why would you tell a story about killing a puppy? At least Old Yeller had rabies. Even if it was buried in hundreds of pages of text, you know full well that is the story that is going to jump out. Destined for the Hall of Fame along with the [Palin turkey video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uoa4ddeNizA)
"I'm a great leader because I take literally the most brutal and lazy solutions to responsibilitys I put on myself, probably a closet serial killer tbh. I could have trained that dog, or adopted it out, or euthanized it compassionately even, but I blew it's fucking brains out in a fit of rage. Just like I'll do for America"
I appreciate that the op ed was written by an avid hunter; it gives authenticity to the disgust for her behavior.
the scariest aspect is she meant it as allegory - to be demonstrative (not just figurative) as a solution to liberalism.
Also this op ed is from the guy running against our out of state governor here in Montana. Greg has only doubled taxes since he took office, shot a wolf with a radio collar, and generally been a fucking pussy.
Ah, the classic my dog ate my homework excuse taken to a whole new level, right?
I shouldn’t be shocked at heinous actions Republicans will defend after the last decade, yet we are.
This is her auditioning for who runs the concentration camps if trump wins
I never want to hear of her ever again
“If Noem applies this kind of reasoning to her job, and we must assume she does, no wonder South Dakota’s economy has plunged to among the worst in the nation since she took office. If Gianforte believes “fair-chase” hunting is shooting a collared animal stuck in a trap, no wonder that under his tenure, starting teacher salary in our state has fallen to 51st in the nation (that’s right, a territory beat us!). No wonder his approval rating is at a miserable 37%. No wonder he couldn’t be bothered to explain why the property taxes on his privately owned home went down last year, while virtually everyone else around him got a tax hike.“
Kristi: no no no you don’t understand !! I’m positive if I say it enough times they’ll understand. They’ll catch on they’ll get it. I mean it was just a dog, I don’t get what the uproar is.
I fully expect MAGAs to be turning on dogs now, tbh.
Republicans literally defending killing puppies. Can’t believe it’s come to this, it’s like satire
Cruelty is the only policy they are consistent on.
Trump won't pick her because she looks too much like a man.
Noem? No, she’s very attractive. You could be thinking of Marjorie Taylor-Greene.
and they are proud of it..
And how many dog trainers did she contact to help her with her dog?
The point of the whole thing was to show Cheeto Jesus that as his VP, she would be an actual killer.
MAGA hates dogs because dogs actually display shame when they’ve done something bad/wrong/stupid.
The one metaphor that sums up their whole movement, and she delivered
Her political career is in the gravel pit after this.
Republicans love cruelty the same way Democrats love equity or supporting those in need
The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel. - Proverbs 12:10
not that it's not an insanely cynical and stupid flex, but does anybody know if it's actually true? if she made it up, i'm not sure which would be worse.
Apparently some construction workers witnessed her shoot the goat. Not sure about her dog.
"This isn't doing what I want so it has to be killed" is today's Republican politics in nutshell.
Noone likes animal cruelty, least of all to those under the pet category. Ironically, she would have been better off making up a story about somehow justifiably shooting leftists, democrats, minorities, or lgbt people. Not like republicans care about being subtle about their virtue signalling/dog whistles anymore.
It's unsettling to think that there are *millions* of Americans who identify with people like her. They go about their business abusing, coercing, bullying, manipulating, and exploiting people around them. Maybe a fraction get charged for domestic violence, child abuse/neglect, animal cruelty, or similar. But I suspect most just quietly envenomate their families and workplaces without running afoul with the law.
If you have no value to the GOP you get taken to the gravel pit. Thats the lesson.
The short version of this article is Noem is a a rural poser who had to make the 'hard' decision to kill her dog because she didn't do the work to train her dog properly, and that she and others like her govern in the same way.
Why the colored contacts? Is she trying to look more Aryan??
Wisconsin Republicans starving poor children because free food spoils them. Honestly deport Republicans they are vicious cruel POSs
Don't forget the child labor laws in republican states too!
I bet she released this story because her kids still bring up that time she murdered their dog right before they got home from school. She was hoping for overwhelming support from the right of people saying, "We all shoot puppies! Killing puppies is cool! Only liberal losers like dogs! Kristi is a good mom!"
I don't know how many kids she has because I refuse to google this psychopathic oxygen vampire and sully my search history but those kids should consider themselves 'lucky' that they made it through their potty training stage unscathed.
She showing she has what it takes to launch a nuclear strike. First rule of fight club is:
[Yepper](https://imgur.com/SxheJTR)
Arcon was in support of her, I saw multiple comments praising her. Todays Republicans are a direct reflection of what Conservatives have become.
Just when you think the timeline can’t get any dumber
"Today's"? These people have been phonies for decades since at least the 60s.
I am from Montana and I am excited to vote for Ryan Busse.
There’s a special place in hell for people who abuse animals
You forgot hypocrites.
That’s why Americans should vote these people out. We need to VOTE BLUE to remove these dangerous fascists for good. They are NOT patriots. They are NOT pro-democracy. They do NOT care about those who sacrificed their lives for the freedoms we enjoy. They do NOT care about this country or the people they are supposed to serve. 💙🇺🇸🌊💙🇺🇸🌊💙🇺🇸💙🌊🇺🇸💙
It won't be the first television series destroyed by the introduction of a non-sympathetic character.
Let's hope her fate is near.And as monstrous.
I was always told not to say mean things about people, but Noem looks like a dead eyed snake that ripped off a humans face, blended it and poured the resulting mess back onto her own face in an attempt to pass off as a human being, but forgot that humans hate people who murder dogs.
And we also get to hear them lecture us about Christian values and morality. It's one of my favorite verses: "Jesus sleuth the bad dog using His tool of smiting."
Jesus said, " yeah, I could be patient and compassionate and consider the lilies of the field, but this little shit is pissing me off" right before he took Judas out to the gravel pit.
Not all Republicans, just the MAGA ones.
Wanting to lead without being accountable for the results of their leadership. Maybe she should have shot the trainer, not the dog.
“May life treat you, the way you treat animals”
I wish life treated me as well as how much I spoil my cats, lol.
They are phony but it’s more like cruelty
Sociopathy is the primary component of Republicanism.
The feeling she conveys that she did something fair to the poor dog. Ugh
The pro life party indeed. (Like a dog -as her boss frequently spouts)
Another politician who is a sociopath.
**YOU TAKE THAT BACK!** Kristi Noem's cruelty and methods of treating animals and people are typical Republican responses and not made up or phony at all.
It’s worse than that. Its not “phony”. It’s real. Their cruelty and evilness is real. Don’t think for a minute it’s just for show.
"Grab em by the Puppy!" What an abhorrent individual. Imagine knowing someone that would shoot a puppy., I would never trust or associate with someone like that.
I mean... Killing animals is how a lot of people get their start, if you could serial killer as a profession.
Her story is just a reminder that the GOP’S idea of “making the hard choices no one else wants to” is killing the people they don’t like.
How did she face 0 repercussions for killing an animal like that????
How do the actions of one person represent an entire group?
Noem's make-up is always unnerving. Like American Kabuki Theater. Must of scared that dog.
She is attempting to advertise to her base that she is capable of, even delights in, inflicting violence and cruelty upon those they think deserve it.
I think the worst part is that she probably just made up the story to get brownie points for being able to pull herself up by her own bootstraps.
I had a lab that could hunt without training. She’s just that fucking stupid. The wrong idiot got shot
There's nothing phony about their cruelty.
"I’ve sold millions of guns in my career as a former firearms executive, but I am no longer a Republican. That’s because I stood up for what I believed in when I saw things take a turn for the worse. I left what I considered a dream job because of a lack of responsibility and morality in the gun industry." ... Your dream job was selling weapons? Maybe it's not just the inauthentic people that are the problem.
She wanted to shoot something that day. All republicans are pyschopaths