#america moving forward

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Donald Trump’s shortlist for his running mate is full of the right wing’s worst political stars—aside from himself, that is. But reported vice presidential hopeful Kristi Noem has one skeleton in her closet—er, in the woods—that will not be helpful in the polls.

The South Dakota governor admits to deliberately killing her 14-month-old pet dog Cricket in her upcoming book No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, reported The Guardian, which obtained an advance copy of the book, on Friday. The book is due out next month.

“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, calling her “untrainable,” “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with,” and “less than worthless… as a hunting dog.”

After repeated failed attempts to train Cricket as a hunting dog, the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Cricket mauled a family’s chickens when Noem stopped at their house following a pheasant hunt.

Cricket had escaped Noem’s truck and attacked the family’s chickens, “grabb[ing] one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another.”

Noem wrote that she repeatedly apologized, wrote the family a check “for the price they asked, and helped them dispose of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime.”

“It was not a pleasant job,” she writes, “but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.”

Noem recalls getting her gun and leading Cricket to a gravel pit before executing her.

Critics were quick to point out that the fault was not with Cricket, but with Noem herself. A 14-month-old dog is a “baby that doesn’t know any better,” Dan Lussen, a professional hunting dog trainer, told Rolling Stone.

“To me, it’s a lack of guidance by the owner, or training by the owner, or discipline by the owner,” he said, explaining that training a young hunting dog is a lengthy and slow process. “There’s a lot of steps that you take before you take it to a field and shoot birds over it.”

Noem’s record as governor of South Dakota isn’t clean, either. Several Native tribes in the state have banned her from their reservations over her racist assertions that Natives in the state work with drug cartels and neglect their children. Plus, Noem’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a high number of cases in the state, and she tried to prevent Native tribes from implementing their own COVID safety measures.

Her attitude towards canines may not put her in Trump’s VP doghouse, though. He has repeatedly called his opponents dogs as an insult, mentioned on multiple occasions about how much he doesn’t like them, and famously avoided having a pet dog as president because he said it “feels a little phony to me.”

[pinkhysteria]

if this twist week actually solidifies meme/felicia/america/cory going forward, i may forgive it...

[justinspoliticalcorner]

David Moye at HuffPost:

Conventional wisdom suggests it’s not politically smart to brag about killing puppies, but South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is challenging that theory. In a new book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” Noem reveals that she once killed a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer because she was “less than worthless” as a hunting dog. Even stranger: She suggests her willingness to kill the animal is a political selling point since it shows she will do anything that needs to be done, no matter how “difficult, messy and ugly” it may be. And it was definitely all three of those things based on an advance copy obtained by the Guardian. Noem writes the dog, Cricket, had an “aggressive personality” and needed training before she could be used to hunt pheasant, per the Guardian’s review. Although Noem thought taking Cricket hunting with older dogs would calm her down, she kept ruining things by “chasing all those birds and having the time of her life.” An electronic collar also failed to bring Cricket under control — a fact that she said became woefully apparent after the hunt when Noem stopped to talk with a local family. Cricket managed to escape the truck and attack the family’s chickens, “crunching [each chicken] to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another.”

In her No Going Back book, GOP South Dakota Governor and potential Donald Trump VP choice Kristi Noem revealed that she heartlessly killed her dog Cricket.

This puppy killer is unfit to be a Vice President.

[wordsarefakeokay]

What does capitalism taste like

Does it taste like white picket fences and 2.5 kids

What about a dog in the backyard and BBQs on the weekend

Knowing all your neighbors names and having the HOA on speed dial

Does it taste like the life you want to live?

Are the HOA in your contacts because they keep calling you

Or are you calling them

Does that complicated C word taste the homogeneity in your neighborhood

Where the police arrive in 2 seconds flat, with a gate and a patrol to match

Does it taste like "I'll wait here for your manager" and weekends at the golf course

Does it taste like a martini because the trophy spouse has a long day?

Does it taste like security cams and a ranch on the property with the stable boys and the guest house to the side with the cabana ones?

Does it taste like equestrianship is in your blood from birth? What about fencing?

Does it taste like ivy league vines crawling up babies spines from birth?

Does it taste like "Harvard is your dream not mine" and then rebellion

Does rebellion look like a fully funded backpack trip to Europe with your first great love

Or does it look like "I'm going to work for my parents equally rich rival company"

Or does it look like different freedom, independence, simply a different life

Where you can still ask your parents for money because you reached a happy ever after in the movie

What does capitalism taste like

Happily ever after is fake for us real folks so it must hold true for those up top right?

People in gated communities who's stepford mother's figures are earned with the local book club

Who's menopause kicks in at the same pace because we're all just clucking hens bonding together aren't we

Aren't we all just girls looking to connect with other girls in line for the bathroom?

Let's be honest, we all have some kind of mommy issue don't we? #justgirlythings

And what about the men? Is it really just an opportunity to measure up?

Is it a subtle side eye to measure manhood, even tho bro code states "thou must not make eye contact with another bro I'm the bathroom"

Doe you feel like enough when you see a guy like your ex is now dating

Do you feel reassured when you notice your manhood is better?

Why does size matter?

Why am I automatically called "a little lady" by cowboys who are raised to believe "bigger in Texas" really means better

Is this what capitalism does

Does "be a man" follow men into the bathroom like "don't be a pussy" does for women?

Why must public communal bathrooms make us decide a gender right at that moment

Can't we measure a bathroom by the content of their room?

Stalls or urinals? Privacy or not? Right this way fellow citizen

Citizen. Human. Person. Life.

What does capitalism taste like

Does it taste like legislation against the gays?

No cakes no websites no space no homos

No healthcare no rights no sports pro bono

Hare dare anyone use pronouns! Fake news!

Them libs want you to think you can be referred to anything but your name. It's the devil's work

Didnt you hear that song? Call me by your name? He was a devil in the music I daresay! The devil!!

I'd let the devil fuck me

At least he would treat me right and show me a good time

What has capitalism done

This thing we fought for so that all our founders' legacies might have a future

Future away from tyranny and taxation and being slaves to our king

We have no kind any more, no crown jewels to protect, but we act the same

Why is the one who's always on top always the winner who writes the history

The winner who's educated

from a family with money

who were taught good Christian values

with a fencing rapier in hand and

Shakespeare in their veins

Is this what capitalism does

Dilutes us to the elite

Homogeneous suburbia and "all you need is fairy tales and you can be rich too"

Political correctness and "just find a man to solve your problems"

Register to vote and "be a man or you're not good enough"

It's not just little girls who get told their not good enough

The gender non conforming community has definitely unlocked a whole cheat code on life

That and the furries who have been the scientific backbone of this country for eons

But why do my apples taste not like what an apple tree looks like in the movies?

The one in the corner of Mamma Mia on the isle in Greece

Where my problems were solved by not getting married but traveling the world as a skinny white woman with her Kenough manly man

Singing voice for character wink

Why don't my apples taste like those on the Grecian island where the stories of the locals are forgotten to the American story, the American dream

I escaped my mom and became one myself

I'm a self made woman now

With a mortgage she can't pay and life problems that were clearly solved by marrying the man who hurt her the most in life

Why doesn't my apple taste like how that apple tree looks?

Why doesn't it taste like the apple from the garden?

Why doesn't it taste like the freedom eve must have felt when she disobeyed

Why is the taste of temptation diluted in my cheap apple from the superstore in the fruit section

Does it taste like pesticide and FDA regulations

Who keeps them in check? The CDC? WHO?

The DOJ or FBI or NAFTA or the Geneva convention

Was it a Geneva suggestion or a line from the treaty of Versailles or did agent orange bring us here

How many babies were born deformed before I ate this apple

And how many nat GMO products have I consumed that my human body has endured?

What does capitalism taste like? Because I swear, remaining tribal lands must not be like this

Forgotten poor African villages eat different

Forgotten poor native south America cultures remain intact on top of mountains that the white or Spanish or French have not yet learned to monetize

And now they will never because the people on the ground know better and are stronger

And capitalism stays the same

Progress is progress no matter how small

But all this progress

Is it good for us

Good for our taste buds

They say to beware vaccines and microchips but aren't we already a cyborg because we carry a favored microchip in our hands?

The ones we avoid calls from home on and instead laugh at cat videos

We share, bare our souls online to strangers but the people in our lives could never break our pokerface

But if we were born this way

Would we ever know what capitalism tastes like

If we don't ask someone else?

Does capitalism taste like the additive sugar in a fun size bar of crunch

Does it taste like the chocolate take over energy found in the Nestle headquarters

Or does it taste like the cocaine they put into coca cola to keep people buying more

I'm not convinced that the girl scouts didn't take that idea for themselves

Does capitalism taste like the working conditions of these massive corporate overlords

Or the factories where they bottle and bag and package comfort for 1.25

Does it taste the endless metallic conveyor belts

Or the chance that peanuts were used in any of those products

Does it taste like our countries trade deal for cheap products made from other companies

Does it taste like the the sweat shops that make your favorite new shirt or those fashionable high tops

Does it take like the abused labor that built this country

Does it taste like all the ghost statues of people who should have been memorialized instead of forgettable white men from history

Does it taste like the rust they should have earned all along

Or does it taste like the pain of forgotten artists

The heart of Harlem the beasts of Boston the cheeps of the Cherokee

Does it sound like the ones who's names we forget

The neglected breaks of the Oregon trail the gentrification of the only pockets of culture in this country

The Japanese internment camps

Border patrol and the place where there was almost a wall

Are the tears of all the family members of witches still a part of Salem

What about the hurt caused by the fights for gender equality that excluded black women

Does capitalism taste like Jim Crow or strange fruit

Just because it's rotting in the back doesn't mean it's in our past

These caged birds still sing can't you hear?

I fear for my brother and my niece and my nephew daily, their lives matter too

Friends neighbors family

They're still part of your labor or did you forget what The 13th taught us

Toni Morrison, Frederick Douglas

Miles Davis, Billie Holliday

MLK and Malcom X

HER and Missy Elliott

They run in our veins

The revolution is not televised

Stonewall certainly can't be told by anyone else

Nor can we forget the power of black trans women in the creation of pride spaces

What about the flyover cities that are meant for rural living with signs screaming "no airport here"

The pain of the indigenous people who's land a mindless mall was built over

Being given back land that belonged to those born here ages past

Ancestral home can be yours with a side of steak knives

And while I'm here can I interest you in the Book of Mormon

What about their tears? Their blood their breaks their pain

Does capitalism taste like that?

The endless lost even now and memorialized in art with a red handprint to their portrait

The lack of water and resources to land promised back

Ancestral home returned but you're on your own. Unless you're ready to hear about our Lord and savior

When will we realize we aren't a savior to begin with

Is this what capitalism tastes like?

Institutions built for white people who forgot that the land isn't theirs and never was

Home of the brave where those with the most force and money can get anywhere

We're the underdogs, the land of opportunity, come on by

You just have to follow these few simple rules

So if you're not perfect or cookie cutter, don't worry we'll just sand around the edges

So you'll fit into these boxes and society can know what to do with you

But if you're too much or not enough be ready to hate the rest of your days here

Welcome to the country of goldilocks and fuck you if you're not "just right"

What does capitalism taste like for you?

[miserye]

bought myself a little gift like i really needed another little gift for myself

[felassanis]

Them. Playing Lonesome Road: I'm gonna pick NCR to rule New Vegas

Me:

[rollercoasterwords]

FREE grad school & with a stipend!! such massive congrats (as an American i do know how amazing and also how much of an accomplishment that is)! That’s fucking huge and i hope ur doing something massive to celebrate. congrats congrats congrats 🎉

THANK YOU!!!!! i'm literally so so so excited i know it is not going to be very glamorous + fun once i'm in the trenches wading through the academic weeds but. right now i am romanticizing the shit out of it i'm gonna be living in my little apartment going to my little classes ta'ing for my little professors <3 + my twin is in med school so we'll be little students in the city together <3 + i can go do laundry at my sisters' place on weekends <3 also i just love being a student but i also really love teaching so!!! i am actually very very excited to ta <3

[earthylight]

how am I supposed to do schoolwork when laws are being passed/proposed every day to make trans people’s lives a living hell and people are debating my right and my friends’ rights and my community’s right to live

[tenebriism]

// I still feel like crap, BUT--- I finally bought the Wanderer + Xingqiu cosplays I've been eyeing for months now, so those are my happy thoughts right now as my body tears itself apart.

Gonna try to be here. Might just make it another FFXIV + Wire day, depending. Hope y'all are doing well.

[pinkhysteria]

i do kind of need the entire lineup of comps for the rest of the season to be leaked so i can decide how much i want to pay attention...

[tvxcue]

no one gets peggy and steve like i do and no one should be able to talk abt them outside of tfa and tws, especially not marvel writers, fuck marvel writers you don’t understand them.

[mattzerella-sticks]

I think if the DCEU moves forward, after the Black Adam movie, with making the Justice Society as the main team in the universe over the Justice League, it'd be a hilarious irony that I'm here for.

[s-cullayy]

trying not to let the despair get to me but it is sinking into my bones :-)

[theunicornastronaut]

doing a lot of research on Greek holidays and traditions and all that, and wow, the US is seriously lacking. maybe it's cause i have such a small family and we usually chill most holidays, but just reading about some of this stuff i get smacked with this sense of community and togetherness. and also it all just sounds and looks so fun?

also all the food sounds and looks fucking delicious. i'm so jealous. get me some of that Politiki man.

[ivytheenbyfae]

Students and Teachers are scared out of their own School Board under threat of N3o-N*z!

I am a high schooler from Hernando County Florida. There is a school board meeting that I, along with many of my peers and also teachers, was planning on attending to speak out and show our support for each other. If you are unfamiliar with what's happening in Florida, especially my county, right now, our governor has been putting unnecessary bans on our school curriculums and teachers. He is insistent that any minority or "woke idea" must be erased from our schools, specifically LGBTQ youth and POC youth. One of the members of our school board is besties with him and she is going on a rampage trying to erase rainbows, or anything else "woke". Her name is Shannon Rodriguez. She suspended a teacher for showing Disney's "Strange World" in her classroom on the pretense that it showed a gay character.

The meeting was originally going to be held at the school board office, but was moved to a school theatre to accommodate the larger expected audience. Myself and many other students had speeches planned but within the past three hours of this being written (currently its 1305), we have been told that Neo-N*z!s, and other conservative far right wing groups are going so far as to fly in from other states in order to attend. Their presence threatens my security/safety (as a white, female/straight appearing teen), my trans friend's, my Black friend's, and teacher's safety and security. So now many of us will not be there. Our county is a very Republican county, and the majority of those Republicans are extreme conservatives (guns, God, glory, Trump is my savior and my Jesus and my president, etc) and now children are not safe.

Please because Everyone needs to hear what we're facing here.

Here is the petition to remove Shannon: (actually written by one of my AP teachers)

Here is what I was going to say tonight

[bogleech]

It’s amazing how you’ll see that evil villainous city planner archetype in kid’s cartoons, the one who just sadistically wants to bulldoze the cute little historic playground to build a parking lot for rich people, and you might assume it’s a generalized caricature of political greed or metaphor for more complex gentrification issues, but no, the trope started specifically as a parody of New York urban planner Robert Moses who was proudly open about making the city as hostile as he could to minorities and poor people who couldn’t afford cars, tried to scrub the city of anything he considered low class or too progressive and at one point literally wanted to replace a beloved playground with parking for an expensive restaurant. He also had countless admirers in high positions across the country and employees who went on to spread his philosophy to other cities so he might have single handedly made every city in America worse to this day.

The playground incident became especially famous, though, because it was one of the first times public backlash actually defeated him and stopped it from moving forward. That’s why the stock plot he inspired is about communities coming together and winning. His life’s legacy is a cartoon villain that exists to fail and be humiliated.