So, this happened: Kristi Noem admitted that she shot a puppy. You can’t make this up if you tried.
“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, adding that Cricket had proved herself “untrainable”, “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”. Noem got her gun, then led Cricket to a gravel pit. “It was not a pleasant job,” she writes, “but it had to be done.”
First off: that dog was fourteen months old, which makes it a puppy. Second of all: hate yourself for not being arsed to–Oh, I don’t know–ACTUALLY GET UP OFF YOUR LAZY ASS AND TRAIN IT. Seriously, I admit that I couldn’t stand my parents’ dogs, but that was because they coddled those animals and refused to train them! When I was alone, I could get the dogs under control, as I wasn’t being undermined by my parents. This wasn’t the fault of the dogs; this was on my parents.
Also: I may have been strict, but I didn’t lay a finger on them. I just didn’t put up with their bullshit.
On top of that: you could have just as easily surrendered that pup to a rescue. If it truly was useless as a field dog, then it could have been rehomed or it could have gone to a rescue so someone else could adopt it. But you didn’t even think of that.
Nope. Instead, you dragged the puppy to a gravel pit and shot it.
You shot a puppy. You should be fucking ashamed of yourself. But you’re not. Because you just defended your reprehensible actions.
“We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm.”
Really? So, that means you’re pro-choice, right? Because tough decisions and all.
Wait, you’re NOT?! You championed a heartbeat bill! But what about those “tough decisions” that a pregnant person may have to make! I guess that “heartbeat” doesn’t matter unless it’s a fetus, does it?
That puppy was a fetus, too. A fetal puppy that had a heartbeat. We see how much you cared about her.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go binge kitten videos because fuck that bitch.
It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s time for another Weekly Reader! As always, if you have something you’d like to share, drop a link in the comments!
The Vile Sextortion and Torture Ring Where Kids Target Kids (from Vice News–CW for violence, animal cruelty, child abuse and exploitation): “All of this happened on Discord, the immensely popular chat app, on a server known as “Cultist.” According to Ali, the goal was “to be the most evil.” If that sounds childish, that’s because it was. The abuse consisted of children victimizing other children. The community sustains itself on a cycle of violence in which victims, after sustaining immense abuse and trauma, turn into abusers themselves—often because they see it as the only way to escape their situation.”
There Are Dark Corners of the Internet. Then There’s 764 (from Wired–CW for animal cruelty and child exploitation): “The perpetrators of com’s and 764’s abuse have for years operated behind the masks of usernames and profile pictures. A detailed look at the leadership and core members of this community reveal for the first time crucial details about the steps leading them to systematically victimize children, how the predation network functions, how they have continued to evade ban attempts by major platforms and persist despite ongoing criminal investigations—and how they continue to spread a malicious ethos worldwide.”
MY FAMILY’S SLAVE (from The Atlantic, June 2017): “It confused me: My parents were good to my siblings and me, and we loved them. But they’d be affectionate to us kids one moment and vile to Lola the next. I was 11 or 12 when I began to see Lola’s situation clearly. By then Arthur, eight years my senior, had been seething for a long time. He was the one who introduced the word slave into my understanding of what Lola was. Before he said it I’d thought of her as just an unfortunate member of the household. I hated when my parents yelled at her, but it hadn’t occurred to me that they—and the whole arrangement—could be immoral.”
CAPTIVE NO MORE (from the Post and Courier, February 18, 2022): “For almost six years, Edwards had built an insidious trap of financial power, isolation and violence that human traffickers often use to control their victims. Sometimes, the scourge festers in the nation’s murky shadows. Other times, right in plain sight.
Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, Edwards stared at the carpet as Chris said in his statement:
“Today, I feel free.””
Trump was forced to listen silently as potential jurors offered their unvarnished assessments of him (from the Associated Press): “It’s been a dramatic departure for the former president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee, who is accustomed to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation. Now a criminal defendant, Trump will instead spend the next several weeks subjected to strict rules that strip him of control over everything from what he is permitted to say to the temperature of the room.”
Indiana Now Has a Religious Right to Abortion (from Rewire News Group): “In upholding the injunction, the Indiana Court of Appeals propelled free exercise claims to abortion access. But the decision should not be surprising. The order straightforwardly applies the standard religious exemption test as it has been developed in hundreds of cases brought by conservative Christian law firms; a believer is entitled to a religious exemption from a law that substantially burdens their “sincere religious exercise” unless the state can prove that the burden is the “least restrictive means” of achieving a compelling government interest.”
Greater numbers of younger people got permanent contraception after Dobbs decision, study finds (from CNN): “In a study that included 113 million people in all four US Census regions, researchers found that since the reversal, both vasectomies and tubal ligations — sometimes called having your tubes tied — increased significantly in people ages 18 to 30.”
Bosses are becoming increasingly scared of AI because it might actually adversely affect their jobs too (from Tech Radar): “Of the 600 surveyed, nearly half (43%) felt their jobs were at risk, while 76% of them have decided to push on with opening Pandora’s Box and have launched training bootcamps in the technology.
A similar proportion (44%) said they felt their employees weren’t ready to ‘handle’ AI adoption’, and just over a third (34%) wanted to ban it. However, 45% admitted to using AI tools to do their work for them and, in the report’s words, ‘often passing the work off as their own’.”
How do you build without over polluting? That’s the challenge of new Catan board game (from NPR): “In a blog post on Daybreak’s website, the game’s co-designer Matteo Menapace wrote that he and co-creator Matt Leacock were inspired to make the game because they were both worried about climate change and weren’t sure what to do about it.”
Documents found on a North Korean server suggest US studios may have unknowingly outsourced animation work (from CNN): “In addition to drawings for an upcoming season of the Amazon Prime Video show “Invincible,” the files also contain sketches and videos that resemble work for “Iyanu: Child of Wonder,” a superhero series slated to air on Max, the streaming service that, along with CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
There is no evidence that the studios had any knowledge their proprietary work was on a North Korean server.”
Scientists trying to protect wildlife from extinction as climate change raises risk to species around the globe (from CBS News): “Across all U.S. states, Hawaii has the greatest number of species listed as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — estimated at nearly 500 species.”
The world dumps 2,000 truckloads of plastic into the ocean each day. Here’s where a lot of it ends up (from CNN): “Indonesia is one of several Southeast Asia nations that have tightened their rules for plastic waste imports as they try to prevent becoming plastic dumping grounds for countries like China, the US and EU nations. Indonesia will only allow shipments of products that are fully recyclable, but its neighbor to the north, Thailand, has gone further: It is banning all incoming plastic waste shipments starting in 2025.”
In Mexico, 19 feral cats can officially roam the presidential palace fur-ever (from NBC News): ““The cats are now a symbol of the National Palace. Just as we understand this world, I wouldn’t understand the National Palace without the presence of these cats,” said Adriana Castillo Román, general director of the National Palace and Cultural Heritage Conservancy. “We have to make sure the cats are taken care of.””
“Patients would come 9 or 10 times”: What we can learn from the first time abortion was banned (from Salon): “Abortion was so popular, in fact, that it became the source of wealth for one of the richest women in the country at the time, Ann Trow Lohman, who was better-known by her advertising moniker, Madame Restell. Over decades of running an abortion empire from her home in New York City, Madame Restell was able to amass a massive fortune and so much fame that “Restellism” became the Victorian-era term for terminating an unwanted pregnancy. But then, as now, she faced deeply misogynist opposition by those appalled at a woman who helps other women control their bodies. Madame Restell died in 1878 by suicide, after being hounded legally by the self-appointed guardian of American sexual morality, Anthony Comstock.”
AMAZON ABANDONS GROCERY STORES WHERE YOU JUST WALK OUT WITH STUFF AFTER IT TURNS OUT ITS “AI” WAS POWERED BY 1,000 HUMAN CONTRACTORS (from The Byte): “But over five years later, the system has seemingly become more of a burden. According to The Information, the tech was simply far too slow and too expensive to implement, with outsourced cashiers reportedly taking hours to send back data so customers could get their receipts.”
The Parents Who Regret Having Children (from Time): “Most of the time—whether I hear it in passing, quickly, from a stranger at a literary event, or late at night from a beloved friend—this kind of revelation arises from a place of anguish. Some of these parents talk about feeling utterly alone, like villains past all imagining. Several have noted that, afraid of being judged, they decline to be candid with their own therapists. If asked what I think, I reply that, from what I’m hearing, they’re not alone. Not at all. I hope it helps; I’m told, at times, it does. It’s a physic to which I’ve devoted my life: asked why I write, I often respond that books, words have provided vital fellowship during spells of harsh isolation, when I thought that solitude and its attendant, life-torquing evils—shame, guilt, the pain of exile—might kill me.”
That’s all for this week but don’t worry! I’ll be back again with more articles that may just tickle your fancy! Until then, have a great rest of your week and happy reading!
Been spending a lot of time on Violet hitting the Meganium den and earning Herba Mystica; they respawn once a day. No, you can’t catch another Meganium, as it’s only one per save file, but you can claim the rewards more than once. I’ve also been hitting the Blissey Raids for Tera Shards; Psychic is now completely maxed out, and Fairy isn’t too far behind. Most of the others are in the 500 to 600 range.
I haven’t been hatching as many Eggs lately, but that’s fine. Shiny hunting takes time. The current runs with the Tera Raid Battles have kept my anxiety to a dull roar. It’s still there, just not as noticeable.
But we’re nearing the end of the month. I’m expecting the anxiety to start creeping back. Currently, I only have a couple of weeks where I feel normal, then things start to fall apart.
I blame the hormones. Because this feels exactly like the side effects of the tamoxifen. The only thing I’m not dealing with is the hot flashes.
Welcome to the other side. I can’t say that I enjoy it. It’s going to be a long couple of years.
Ace of Base’s “Happy Nation”. This song now lives rent-free in my head but not exactly for a positive reason. (Still upset about “Remember It”.)
It’s been another shitty week, so let’s turn this into a kitty week! So here’s a cat, feline the “knead” to relax. Enjoy!
1) Current mood:
2) This is your weekly reminder that Xitter is a Dumpster fire, especially now since Muskrat wants to charge new users a “small” fee to post in order to “curb” the bot problem. Mastodon and BlueSky are free. Just saying.
3) Thought for the Week:
4) Recently, I decided to go looking for one of the blogs I used to frequent many years ago–Jesus General–to see if it still exists. It still does, but it hasn’t been updated in almost a decade. Funnily enough, the blog started slowing down massively the year prior in 2013, which was the exact same year that I started to step away from my own blog. I’m starting to wonder if there was something in the water that year, because it really felt like a lot of blogs that I frequented started to slow down, if not close down entirely. Most of the major news blogs I followed either shut down or disappeared. I myself went from 38 posts in 2012 to a mere eight the following year. I desperately tried to revive my Blogspot blog in 2014 and 2015, but I just couldn’t do it. That site had sadly run its course. After some time away, I got back into blogging, but I distanced myself from Blogger and that seemed to make a huge difference. What seemed to help was having some structure rather than trying to come up with a brand new post every day. So, my current format seems to be keeping me interested and posting. Hopefully, for a long time to come.
5) So this finally dropped:
Yes, I have thoughts. But watch the trailer first.
6) Okay, a few thoughts:
-Megatron basically saying “I ain’t saying sh*t about f*ck to you!” then literally trauma dumping not even three seconds later is an entire ass mood.
–I WILL NEVER NOT CALL HIM BADASSATRON.
-Scarlett Johansson is seriously impressive as Elita-1.
-Bumblebee ran from that situation faster than me getting out of work early.
-Love the visuals of pre-war Cybertron but I have all ideas that I’m going to be wrecked when we get to the darker side of the story.
-HOLY SLAG, THAT WAS ALPHA TRION.
But yes, I am definitely interested. Can’t wait until I can get my tickets. 🙂
7) My two days off from work are feeling less like “days” and more like fifteen minute breaks. I don’t think I like that.
With that said, we’ll stick a fork in it for today. But don’t fret! I’ll stop by again and leave more moldy brain droppings on my blog! Until next time, have a great weekend and I’ll see you soon!
It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s time for another Weekly Reader! As always, if there’s anything you’d like to share, drop a link in the comments!
Verified pro-Nazi X accounts flourish under Elon Musk (from NBC News): “NBC News found the Nazi propaganda posts by browsing the platform: scrolling through replies, clicking on user profiles and looking through the engagements on viral posts. NBC News conducted its review during one week in late March. The number of verified subscribers posting pro-Nazi material may be significantly more than 150. When NBC News conducted its review, Premium subscribers had the option to hide their verification check marks from the public.”
Two former execs of the company behind the Truth Social merger are caught up in a messy hacking lawsuit (from The Verge): “The details are fairly messy. Patrick Orlando, the CEO of DWAC until March 2023, claims he was ousted by Eric Swider, a Trump Media board member who was appointed CEO immediately after Orlando was fired. (Swider served as CEO until March of this year.) Orlando filed the suit against Swider through the Benessere Investment Group, a company he controls, according to Wired’s report.”
Louisiana HB 777 Would Criminalize Librarians and Libraries Who Join the American Library Association (from Book Riot): “Since the rise of book banning in early 2021, the ALA has been at the receiving end of criticism from right-wing politicians and organizations, despite no such similar pushback toward similar organizations for other professionals. Indeed, such attacks have served to not only skewer the profession and all it stands for, but they’ve also been one of several ways that certain groups have attempted to undermine the trust in these institutions.”
Ship that caused bridge collapse had apparent electrical issues while still docked, AP source says (from the Associated Press): “The FBI is now conducting a criminal investigation into the bridge collapse that is focused on the circumstances leading up to it and whether all federal laws were followed, according to a different person familiar with the matter. The person wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.”
The reality of being a criminal defendant on trial finally dawned on Trump. He didn’t take it well. (from Politico): “Although Trump has been a criminal defendant for more than a year, he’s rarely been required to show up to court and indeed has routinely skipped pretrial proceedings in the four criminal cases he’s facing. In all four cases, he was allowed to remain free pending trial, as long as he abided by certain conditions of release (conditions that he has, at times, flouted with few consequences).”
Critics call out plastics industry over “fraud of plastic recycling” (from CBS News): “Allen showed us documents and meeting notes they obtained from public archives, and from a former staff member of the American Plastics Council. “What we see in here is a widespread knowledge that plastics recycling was not working,” he said.”
Right-Wing Media Are in Trouble (from The Atlantic): “A simpler explanation is that conservative digital media are disproportionately dependent on social-media referrals in the first place. Many mainstream publications have long-established brand names, large newsrooms to churn out copy, and, in a few cases, large numbers of loyal subscribers. Sites like Breitbart and Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire, however, were essentially Facebook-virality machines, adept at injecting irresistibly outrageous, clickable nuggets into people’s feeds. So the drying-up of referrals hit these publications much harder.”
X-Men ’97 Using Ace Of Base’s Happy Nation Was Just For Me, Actually (from Comic Book Club–WARNING! MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR X-MEN ’97 EPISODE FIVE!): “I’m being a little facetious of course. But the 1992 hit is the perfect accompaniment for the episode and the scene it plays in, for a variety of reasons. Those reasons? The “Happy Nation” lyrics perfectly match the plot of the episode. And also, as an undertone, there’s Ace of Base’s not-so-secret Nazi past. No, I’m not joking about that one.”
Amazon and Walmart warehouse employees are so surveilled that they’re worried about breaking to use the bathroom: Oxfam report (from Business Insider): “”The conditions there are absolutely horrific,” one Amazon warehouse worker in Alabama was quoted as saying in the report. “I likened it to slavery because they care more about quotas and meeting production rates than actually caring about us as human beings inside there. I feel more like a number.””
Unearthed: CBS News Report -Climate Warning in 1982 (from This Is Not Cool): “Hansen flew to Washington to testify on March 25, 1982, performing before a gallery even more thinly populated than at Gore’s first hearing on the greenhouse effect. Gore began by attacking the Reagan administration for cutting funding for carbon-dioxide research despite the “broad consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is a reality.” William Carney, a Republican from New York, bemoaned the burning of fossil fuels and argued passionately that science should serve as the basis for legislative policy. Bob Shamansky, a Democrat from Ohio, objected to the use of the term “greenhouse effect” for such a horrifying phenomenon, because he had always enjoyed visiting greenhouses. “Everything,” he said, “seems to flourish in there.” He suggested that they call it the “microwave oven” effect, “because we are not flourishing too well under this; apparently, we are getting cooked.””
That’s all for this week but don’t worry. I’ll be back again with more reading material for you to consume. Until then, have a great rest of your week and happy reading!
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Iacon East 