Bari: Some unsolicited advice from someone who became a journalist in the wake of Watergate and who has seen firsthand the demise of journalism since then: Bring a diverse group into the newsroom. By diverse, I don’t just mean people with a different skin tone, but people who are diverse in their thinking and interests. Much of what caused the low state of journalism is that newsrooms began hiring only people just like them, with the same thoughts, interests and backgrounds, which simply makes them a club or an activist group instead of journalists.
So my advice would be to hire people from a wide range of ages (interests and priorities do change with age), different backgrounds (at least one person from a rural area and someone from middle America, which thinks differently than the coastal megalopolises), varying religious affiliations (I think you’ve got the Jewish angle covered) and opposing political beliefs (yes, hire that unicorn journalist who supports Trump, or at least has conservative views – many of your readers, judging from comments, are politically conservative).
With that diversity, I think you’ll attain that old-school approach of reporting that will engender the trust you seek. I have high hopes for your success.
TFP needs at least one genuine Trump supporter on staff.
But at the end of the day, they're just as hateful and bigoted towards right wingers as their more extremist counterparts. They just don't lie as much.
Agree on having a Trump supporter, though I have to say I personally LOVE to hate the 10-20% extremists on the far right and far left. They have co-opted the legacy parties and made them largely impervious to public opinion.
We do much better when these groups are sent to the corners with dunce caps. And we're doing very poorly with them running the show.
You would think that after TFP broke the story on NPR that diversity of thought would be top of mind for Bari. Let's hope she'll take some steps to move in that direction. Giving Oliver Wiseman more and more control of what is published is pretty much the opposite.
That is a very dangerous move for The Free Press. Investors are in a position to make demands. Investors are often very savvy legally and have good attorneys who can take you over, or hollow your firm out. The Free Press would be quite a prize for the media moguls to acquire.
But TFP is currently losing money. They can’t continue to exist with their current subscription model, much less grow. From what I read in that Axios article, Bari has big plans, and they won’t be achieved if TFP remains a subscription model Substack venture.
Newspapers? You mean like the NYT and the WSJ? Where I see pop-up ads every single day even though I pay them money to subscribe? “Historically” is the operative word here, ie, growing organically over time is now a part of history and doesn’t happen anymore. And TFP “can lose money”? Nobody can lose money and stay in business. Nobody can lose money for very long and grow.
I find the main problem with "journalists" is that they really don't know much of anything about anything other than maybe grammar. And yet they think that they should be the voice that explains everything good and bad about everything except grammar.
Perhaps it was better back in the days of strong newspapers with really sharp editors. A sharp editor with real business experience can go a long way to rejecting half-baked articles based upon sources with no qualifications or with obvious incentives. And the shame of it is that with search engines readily available today, it is quite easy to check "facts" in just a few minutes. But the FP seems to lack any editors at all, nor any real skill set other than to repeat what others have written or said and attempt to throw in some bit of cleverness.
I think even the grammer angle is being lost. It is being changed to facilitate ease of digital and global communication. My personal pet peeve is conflating bias and prejudice.
I agree about those long gone sharp newspaper editors. They were responsible for long gone journalistic standards.
What is even worse is that they mostly spend their time repeating others while ignoring some pretty obvious huge issues. Woodward and Bernstein made their careers off of one investigative report on Watergate. You would think that modern day journalists would be chomping at the bit to investigate all of the nonsense in politics and the federal govt. Instead, they just repeat what the govt and the political parties tell them. When is the last time you heard a reporter mention the national debt?
They seem very timid(?) nonconfrontational(?). Unless discussing the presumed Republican nominee or his supporters. You are right about the national debt reportage. Either they cannot connect the dots or are unwilling to acknowledge that spending must be slowed.
There should be an article on the National Debt --- by Stephanie Kelton.
All money you use is debt somewhere else. Money is brought into the world by creating an equal debt.
When you pay down the National Debt you destroy money that is being used by people like yourself.
The correct discussion about deficits is "WTAF are you spending that money on?!" War returns less than it costs. Most other things return multiples of their cost. You know, things like infrastructure, or good schools, or baseline medical care. The second highest return was Apollo. The highest return was the interstate freeway system.
Ah, MMT. The ridiculous notion that a govt can spend as much as it wants without consequences.
This from the NYT in Feb. 2022, based upon Kelton's materials: "M.M.T. theorists argue that society should feel capable of spending to achieve its goals to the extent that there are resources available to fulfill them. Deficit spending need not be constrained to recessions, even theoretically. Want to build a road? No problem, so long as you have asphalt and construction workers. Want to feed children free lunches? Also not a problem, so long as you have the food and the cafeteria workers."
But isn't the first major problem with this "theory" that someone has to determine if there are sufficient resources available? How exactly can anyone determine that for global commodities? And how can someone predict supply and demand even locally given that to know that would require intimate knowledge of not only govt projects but also the private sector? What evidence can anyone point to that the US federal govt has these skill sets? Obama took over student loan administration in 2010 so that he could use the billions in profit to fund the ACA. And the profit disappeared almost overnight once the feds got involved.
I don't know of even one govt project locally (always with fed funding) that is not far overbudget, far short of the promises at approval, and years late. So, the idea that the federal govt can accurately determine what resources are available for a new project at the moment the project would start in the future is pure nonsense.
But why would the federal govt even care about that assessment if it had no impact at all on those who were involved? Answer: They prove all the time that they couldn't care less. All projects are far overbudget. All are way late. All are far less than promised. Nobody gets fired. They just ask for more printed money to get it completed.
And what is the impact on the private sector when the federal govt spends and spends like that, deficit or not? The funded projects compete directly with the private sector for resources. Federal project needs more money or resources? Not a problem. Just print more money and outbid the private sector in the free market. But in the private sector, costs go up as they compete for those resources and in the end that means prices go up. Voila! Inflation, caused by the federal govt spending. Further, govt employees are protected from the inflation because they can just print more money to get paid more. But in the private sector, the businesses either cut labor (loss of jobs) or raise prices. Or even worse, they go out of business because they can't compete with foreign competition, or their customers can't afford the new higher prices.
IMHO, MMT is the path to runaway inflation and / or a massive depression as the real businesses in the private sector fail in the global marketplace or can't effectively compete with their own govt for resources. Remember Biden and his 87,000 new IRS employees? Regardless of how they will get paid with borrowed money, that is 87,000 people who will be recruited from the private sector. Think about what that is going to do to wage inflation and private businesses trying to compete.
A college degree in what? Humanities these days is a Marxist-ish education in oppression politics. Worthless. But physics, chemistry, biology, and other hard sciences are good.
I think the TFPs problem is elitism. Bari Weiss just wants to rule the elites. It seems to me that every writer and guest writer embraces elitism. I would screen for someone who does not although I admit it is not easy. Rob Henderson maybe.
TFP really needs a genuine pro-life voice. I like a lot of what they are doing, but I am tired of all the constant cheerleading for abortion. Many people have thoughtful arguments as to why it is the taking of innocent life. It would be nice to get their perspective.
Great comment. I have the feeling most TFP reporters and guest essayists are under 50 (except perhaps Douglas Murray?). Diversity is more than just race, it includes diversity of age. And as you said, region.
Never underestimate the value of a plummy British accent. But Bari, we don't hear any accents. You have turned over your paper to the plummy accent Brit guy.
I second Kauffman's recommendation. Among other things you need few SCIENTISTS to counter the de rigeur inability of journalists to separate twaddle from TERF, twerk, and sense.
The Gaither's had an interesting way to decide whether to hire someone. After the last interview, they would take the candidate to dinner. If the candidate treated the wait staff poorly, they didn't get hired.
The Free Press could do something like this. After the last interview, take the candidate to dinner. If during dinner conversation they don't disagree with you at least once, don't hire them.
The Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project (aka The Free Press) thrives on writing stories about failed Democratic policies across the nation... which they likely supported in the first place.
Bari Weiss, et al, have obviously never encountered the concept of unintended consequences or Chesterton's Fence in their many years of "smart and nuanced" discourses about "what is to be done?" regarding whatever ails society... it never dawns on them that they have been playing Leninist politics for most of their adult lives...
Trust is earned. I for one would like to see an article on why ALL of the cases against Trump are either examples of unequal application of the law, or patently absurd, as is the case with the current trial in New York. Nobody familiar with the law can justify the shredding and defecating on the legal traditions of a thousand years.
I will trust you more when it is not obvious that you all plan to vote for the corrupt corpse, his failings, dishonesty, and patent backing by authoritarians notwithstanding.
Both Tucker Carlson and Sharyll Atkisson--who along with John Stossel are the only journalists I currently trust--are saying they have been told, and have evidence supporting the claim, that nearly all of our Congressional representatives are being controlled like puppets on strings by our intelligence agencies, who are not only operating illegally in this country, but doing so for all intents and purposes openly.
We have large problems, and while I agree we need exceptions in abortion laws, the survival of democracy in our nation--if indeed it still exists--is a bigger issue even than mothers dying of pregnancy complications. God knows the jabs killed a thousand people for every mother endangered in any way by such problems.
We are at a crossroad. One way leads to a positive future, and the other to complete control of every aspect of our lives by the very sorts of people the Democrats used to say they opposed.
"For a while now, you’ve been getting emails from my colleague Olly Wiseman. He’ll be helming The Front Page with his characteristic British wit and wisdom (I just hear his accent). "
For the four thousandth time, I'll just say that Bari and company need to find some writers that actually represents the 50% of this country that are turned off by the soy latte coastal elite laptop class (and yes, that includes our British brother Olly). Many of the subscribers, myself included, that are part of that class, have been giving her & her team the benefit of the doubt from the 'Common Sense' days, and they've grown and are quite successful. I'm happy for them and as a proud founding subscriber, I have been an eager reader and supporter. But I'm finding my patience is wearing thin. Olly, while I'm sure is a fine chap, has no clue what rural North Carolinians or Louisianians' feel about different subjects and news stories and there doesn't really seem be much interest in bringing on contributors that could connect to those people & that demographic. Having a next door neighbor who has a 3rd cousin in Fordyce Arkansas that visits every 6 years, ain't gonna cut it.
So wake up Bari and company and get some writers from our neck of the woods, or that growing subscription base we're all happy to see and help fund, is probably going to slow up a bit.
“Olly” in print looks like “Oily”, at a quick glance.
Trust your eyes…
All of this just cements for me that I come here for you guys, not The Free Press, necessarily. TFP is a great gathering place for fun, interesting people.
I had hope until the Soros DA was re-elected. BTW he dismissed all.of the pro-Arabs we now refer to as Palestinians cases. Every. Single.One.
Edited to acknowledge my mistake. These were misdemeanor charges so they were dismissed by the County Attorney not the District Attorney. Apologies for spreading misinformation.
I chuckled at your post. I find it very perceptive and spot on.
I too am like you. I come here to read TFP articles and the posts. Most of the posts are from well informed educate people and for the most part very civil. The posts more than the articles keep me on my toes and is wealth if information and opposing views.
It would be worthwhile for TFP to take a page from Uri Berliner (the NPR whistleblower) who sought out voter registration for NPR's D.C. newsroom. He found that all 87 journalists were registered Democrats. Would help to engender trust if TFP stated their commitment to a 50/50 Republican / Democrat split among their staff.
Do you not think that your complaint is the whole point? Show all those in flyover country the error of their thinking and ways. We can all be alike. Sadly the internet is accomplishing that anyway. We have almost lost all of which makes us unique. Worldwide.
Bari and TFP are in talks to raise investment capital right now. Once she gets the amount she’s seeking (a closely guarded secret), she won’t need you anymore. Plus, out of the 630,000 subscribers to TFP, there are only 77,000 who pay. Investors are looking at how many eyeballs they will reach. It’s the total 630,000 that matters to them, not the 77,000.
The fact that you are willing to pay money to hang out in the comments with a few like minded people who apparently don’t actually like what Bari is selling means that you have been funding a POV that you essentially disagree with and is only getting worse, not better (see: Olly is now officially in charge of a daily newsletter with all the items you dislike the most, including himself). Here’s the game plan:
You're reading the tea leaves wrong. I don't dislike Olly or Bari. I have a great deal of admiration of them and what they are doing. I'll continue to support TFP and the fact that they are raising capital to grow the business is a good thing. I think its wrong to assume that they won't need a paying subscriber base to flourish. I think that's exactly what they need. Otherwise, they just become WaPo or NYT publishing half baked, unvetted clickbait stories and Bari and her peeps know that. Its ok that they write stuff that I'm critical of. In fact that's quite healthy IMO. They get a lot of stuff right on the regular, but I mostly make comments when I think their liberal stripes are bleeding through too strongly.
If we, the commenters/subscribers continue to push them in a more centrist direction, they hopefully will respond & begin to move that way (yes.....I do believe that TFP leadership and employees read the comments). There are other options like Lee Fang, Tucker, Glenn Greenwald, X, Public & Racket News that are competing for the same eyeballs and TFP knows it. I'll continue to be happy paying and raising the necessary hell when moved to do so.
I think they are pretty center and am eternally grateful that people who began liberal looked around and decided there were serious problems w/their cohort.
We need people who think for themselves and aren't just parroting their tribe.
We’ll see. IMHO, Bari, et al, are already in the middle. They are all center left and will probably remain there. Trust me, they aren’t competing with Tucker Carlson for anything. They don’t want any eyeballs that he’s getting. Enjoy your time in the comments.
Matt taibbi and Walter Kirn on America this week are terrific, as is Matt’s “racket” podcast. While I admire Greenwald’s intellect and integrity, his coverage of Israel/Gaza is so one note,and so one sided, while hosting as guests extremist people like George Galloway, Norman Finkelstein, Roger Waters, --that I doubt he is competing for the “same eyeballs” as Bari.
I have been paying $5/mo. for this site for several years, now (I understand it's now $8 or $10 (?) new subscribers). even if everyone was paying $5, that is close to $5M a year. IDK how much the substack entity takes off the top, but that's a pretty good budget for less than a dozen people. If the add pop up ads and all that nonsense, I'm out of here.
“By the numbers: The Free Press currently employs around 20 full-time employees and 10 contractors, Weiss said, roughly double the number of staff at its launch in late 2022.
In the coming weeks, the company plans to hire nearly a dozen more roles on both the business and editorial sides.
The firm is not yet profitable. Last year, it brought in roughly $5 million in revenue, mostly from subscriptions to its daily newsletter.
The Free Press currently has around 540,000 total email subscribers, 77,000 of which are paid, per Weiss. Most subscribers pay between $6.67 and $8 monthly to access The Free Press' full suite of content.”
Note that TFP had about 30 employees at the time the article was written and was in the process of hiring a dozen more, so they probably have more than 40 people on staff now. Note that they are NOT profitable and are actually losing money with the $5 million income. Hence the need to find institutional investors and raise a ton of capital to offset the losses because they can’t function, much less grow, on the current subscription model.
The Axios article was written when there were only 540,000 subscribers total and that number is now 630,000, however the number of paid subscribers seems not to have risen from the 77,000 mentioned in the article (although the monthly fee may have gone up to $10/mo, don’t know).
I guess I'm getting a "deal" at $5. But if they are raising money based on non-subscribers, then the investors will demand they milk the non-subscribers = advertising. If ,y ad-block software can defeat their advertising, then I don't care. Example is You Tube, which is unwatchable without ad block. If
You are definitely getting a deal at $5/mo; I think I pay $8/mo. I don’t watch YouTube much. Occasionally I watch an Amanpour&co interview, and I subscribed to the GoodFellows from Stanford, but that’s about it. I don’t subscribe to YouTube per se. When a piece starts with an ad, I just watch that thing in the corner where after about 4 seconds you can “stop ad”, which I then do and watch the interview.
Exactly. Apparently Bari failed to notice that when Uri Berliner wrote his piece on lack of diversity of thought at NPR he could very well have been talking about The Free Press.
It will be TFPs undoing unless they're purposely trying to create a left-leaning echo chamber.
At the very least Bari needs to reign in that Olly character.
" I'll just say that Bari and company need to find some writers that actually represents the 50% of this country that are turned off by the soy latte coastal elite laptop class ."
Well the “why” is they say they don’t want to be like Fox, Newsmax, MSNBC, or CNN to name a few. They say they want to cover news. That means covering all the points of view. I respect TFP, but there are topics they seem to have a bias on.
Totally and completely agree, Evans! I don’t believe our comments make it to Bari, anymore. Seems the intern (is it Julie ??) may be the one looking over our post?
I, too, have asked Bari, or whomever makes the decisions, to PLEASE bring in a contributor who will be “a trusted voice of reason” like she was with Common Sense.
Don’t allow TFP to lose what it started as!
Please keep TFP “balanced” and appealing to the Middle, as it was in the beginning! Bari was the very reason I became a supporter, and I still feel the same loyalty toward her! More so since 10/7 and listening to her speak on numerous platforms. SHE is an amazing person & I have great respect for her as a journalist!
But, apparently Bari is a huge fan of Oliver Weisman (his accent), so announcing to us his very own Front Page here at TFP was a huge disappointment to me. I’d hoped for someone Independent of Left & Right, or at least unbiased!
Unfortunately, this isn’t good news for many of us. If Weisman were an honest journalist/reporter, he’d refrain from his Left Wing biased comments. Notice how HE always gets his digs in, but I suppose that’s just “WINGNUT” Olly!
May I suggest you subscribe to Matt Taibbe's "Racket News" or Michael Shellenberger's "Public." The Free Press cannot be all things for everybody. So far, since its launch, I think they've done admirable work.
Besides, do you really want to be one of those who hear only what they wan to hear?
I just want one succinct news digest to read over coffee before once more into the breach of the day. I want a reason to spend less time on a screen trawling for news. Mainly journalist's journalists with a smattering of witty and charming writers. PLEASE!
I know! It seems like everyone (NYT, WSJ etc.) has one , so Bari & co. are jumping into it. I love TFP, but I'm seeing too much bias. We'll see how it plays out!
There's a news aggregator called AllSides that pulls together stories from different sources and ranks the sources as left, center, or right. Although not necessarily a succinct news digest, it is a quick way to see a variety of stories and how outlets across the spectrum are covering them.
Not sure what's different about this email? Different name? Same disinterest in what is truly a danger to our democracy: this administration and the cabal that runs it. Totally over listening to the "shiny object" of abortion, illegal means zero, words matter.
To her credit, Bari seems to have genuinely felt something deeply and dreadfully wrong at the NYT, but she is just closer to sanity than she was. She is more honest than the NYT (and the rest of the captive media) are, but not 100% in yet on reporting all the news worth reporting, consistently and without withholding. I don't think she has opened her mind enough yet to simply ask open ended questions and to report fully where they lead, even if it is someplace she really doesn't like. Maybe she will get there. Maybe she needs to interview Sharyl Attkisson and see how that vibe feels to her. People do change, sometimes.
I personally don't like believing that the CIA and FBI are actively supporting political authoritarianism in this country, but the evidence seems to support it. I would dearly love to be proven wrong. Hopefully I am. The truth is likely more complex . Most of human life includes factions, and I would assume they exist in those places too. Who is winning? Well, I guess we will know before too long. Of course, the victory of one of the factions will never be reported. The non-reporting, though, DOES constitute reporting, for those with the wits to look, and of course not see.
The usual liberal thinking of focusing only on the symptoms and not the problem. Sharyl Attkisson, John Solomon, Glenn Beck. All have reported on the more serious and insidious workings of this administration and its deviousness. Trump isn't the problem.
Yet just yesterday I got into a “friendly” discussion with a couple friends about him. They think he’s an evil man, a Putin wannabe, and that if he’s elected, we will be in WWIII! I’m very concerned about WWIII if this administration continues for another four years!! I’d love for someone here who truly believes this, to let me know what I’m missing. No wars under Trump, yet the world is very unstable since Biden came into office. And where has Trump ever shown his love for Russia and Putin? Seriously want to know to find out if I’m not thinking correctly.
PS…I follow Tucker and Sharyl and, and I love Glen Greenwald and Matt Taibbi.
We're a lot closer to WWIII under the current regime than we were during Trump's term. Do your friends not remember what it was like to live in peace and have cheap gas? Oh but mean tweets, he's terrible.
Linda-- I was chatting w/ a (very BLUE) neighbor yesterday, who was delighted to report that she had a great political chat w/ her cousin, a REPUBLICAN (of all things!!). He really thinks Trump is and EVIL man, but sees that his policies are the only way to fix our country. The only way she could accept her cousin was the fact that he sees Trump as evil, so they can at least be on the same team , even if they are taking different actions based on that fact. God forbid anyone say " I think Trump is smart" or "I think Trump has this country's best interest at heart"!
I have long been puzzled by the Trump animosity. It struck me like a thunderbolt that it is because he is not nice. And he isn't. But that does not mean he is not good. And the irony of all the Trump hate and the depths to which those who will embrace plunge because HE is not nice. I think he gives them the much desired excuse to reveal their true natures.
This man is a very rational being. He’s been working in Republican politics for 50+ years, helped get Karl Rove elected as College Republican president. But, the Trump virus has been absorbed so completely that the craziest theories are accepted as Gospel. When I suggested that he was being hyperbolic, he bristled. This man never bristles; he’s the calmest person I’ve ever known in the political realm.
But, he (still; I fled 3 years ago) lives in metropolitan DC. There is no pushback at all to even the most outlandish Trump conspiracies.
Haters love to read so much into his statements! I know the writer was attempting to do a chronological piece on all of Trump’s quotes, but it lost credibility at the start when the writer talked about Trump making comments about Putin when the Miss Universe pageant was in Russia ! He was a celebrity then, and I’m sure everyone laughed at the time! Even Joe and Mika probably loved him during those years!
Unrelated to this piece, but yet another example of twisting his words, Trump said there were “good and bad people on both sides” and the media and haters went ballistic. Biden says he feels for the Israeli students on campus, yet he also wants people to understand what’s happening in Gaza and nothing from the media. It’s ok if Biden says it…not ok when Trump says it. Got it.
If only the haters could come up with policies they hate. Here's the classic when comparing immigration to the two presidents/candidates, like I heard yesterday…”we’ve always had immigration problems” (refusing to acknowledge the most ever illegals under Biden).
Yes, I read the whole list in the article. At least I get it now…thanks!
Comparing politicians resembles comparing dog turds on the sidewalk. Some are worse than others but if you are expecting to be inspired you are going to be disappointed.
It does help I find to play music (maybe beautiful classical) while reading. Because most stories are either aggravating or simply tragic.
The fact that we have Biden and Trump touted as our Presidential choices is the problem. Trump promised to free Julian Assange but instead commuted the sentence of junk bond fiend and financier Michael Milken. Trump's staff was made up of the revolving door operatives that inhabit all our administrations. Biden is what he is. It is becoming more and more obvious that what really matters is who WE are and what WE are willing to do to preserve OUR Republic.
You are correct Madam. Our popular national conversation talks around the grift, gives the grifters a pass and plays "wack-a-mole" with the mal perps and shills who pop up and smell up American reality. Opinion says that the cause of our problem is the criminal 1% of the 1% of the worlds financial elite. They appear in the public sector when it is profitable do their mischief and disappear back into the private sector at will. Their nasty little psychopathic fingers are in everybody's pockets. They destroy and loot economies at will. D.C.? Crickets!!
Why in the bright future they proclaim is it necessary to destroy and silence the free peoples of the world?
I think the ALPHABET's believe what is goof for them and gives them more power is good for America. A very dangerous mindset for servants of the state.
I trust Carlson to show me a viewpoint that I might not have considered. Then trust myself to determine what I think of that viewpoint. Isn’t that the way it should be?
Maybe it does. But I want to point out that English is filled with gaps that can be filled in varying ways. In this case your last sentence might be completed ". . .everything I need to know to form a wrong conclusion that squares with my wrong assumptions formed on the basis of intentionally wrong data."
Tower 7 was brought down by explosives, period. If you don't know this, you have not studied it. There is no ambiguity. There is consensus and ignorance. Those are the two possibilities. The likelihood is that you have not even heard of Tower 7, much less watched its collapse and thought about it.
UFO"s are real, at least according to highly credible people like Edgar Mitchell (test pilot, Apollo Astronaut and Rocket Scientists with a Ph.D from MIT), Phillip Corso, the Department of Defense, and in the past year or so David Grusch and two Navy fighter pilots, who testified in front of Congress.
I will be happy to work with you to help explain any complex topic about which you find yourself confused, to the extent good conclusions are possible with reliable data.
Reality has no duty to be as dull as you imagine. And none of us have any duty to only see what we are told to see.
Tucker was recently interviewed by Joe Rogan, and he said that aliens from outer space have been living underground on Earth for about 4,000 years. Gotta love his investigative journalism.
You're right. People should turn to neutral academic researchers before pundits when adjudicating claims such as those made about WTC-7: https://ine.uaf.edu/projects/wtc7/
All he did was validate in greater detail what was obvious the moment WTC7 came down. Still, it put the final nail in the coffin of alternative explanations, and was this worth the time and money spent.
At most it debunks a nonsense. The way is not, however, made open to substitute another nonsense. Samewise the testimony of the qualified allows UFOs are real phenomena; it does not allow barking explanations.
"I personally don't like believing that the CIA and FBI are actively supporting political authoritarianism in this country, but the evidence seems to support it."
Among other things, that Hillary was exonerated of a series of serious felonies before the “investigation” even started, and the very damning testimony of Mike Benz, among others.
Handling Classified documents in a flagrantly irresponsible manner. Any soldier would have gone to Leavenworth for 20 years for a small fraction of what she did. And the mere existence of the server—which was plainly intended to circumvent inspection and compliance with the Federal Records Act, which itself implies illegal activity—was likely a felony itself. Add to this the destruction of EVERYTHING—the server, the phones, and if course the email—after they were subpoenaed and the farce of prosecuting Trump for NOTHING and not prosecuting her for anything, becomes very obvious.
Auto-immune disease. You had a couple of decades of no actual enemy of any consequence. I'm not surprised: when it is all hunky-dory, that is when you have to watch for neuroses.
The Uri Berliner piece hit the target and generated articles and response across both electronic and print media. TFP does deliver. But I agree with you about the general focus of reports both here and on other platforms across Substack. We need deep dive investigative reporting and profiles on those dismantling our Republic. We need a new focus and a new conversation. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's betrayal of "we the people" on the FISA vote would be a good place to start. Now you see it now you don't crisis to crisis reporting and knee-jerk shock without followup doesn't help us. Personally I'd like reports to address the disease not the symptoms. That said, the hard work of building and holding a newspaper together should be applauded. I have no problem with today's format change or Mr. Wiseman. News reporting is evolving. What isn't is "we the people."
Here’s an example: We’ve been hearing for a long theme that Marjory Taylor Greene is an antisemite because she made some crazy comment about “Jewish space lasers” although it wasn’t clear where or if she actually said that. Now we read TFP endorsing this narrative, but find out maybe it was exaggerated to the point of just more media propaganda narrative as TFP writes:
“Just think about what happened when, in 2021, Media Matters combed through Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Facebook page and discovered a 2018 post that mentioned, “there are all these people who have said they saw what looked like lasers or blue beams of light causing the fires,” and speculated the California wildfires that year may have something to do with “Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm.” Newspapers, cable news, and late-night comedians pounced. In an instant, Greene became the Jewish space laser lunatic. And rightly so!”
So relaying that some people saw what appeared to be blue lasers near the origins of some wildfires becomes a “space laser” even though there is nothing in Greene’s comment regarding space. An alternative reading that is more likely is that some witnesses may have seen an arsonist using something bright that they speculated might be a laser to set wildfires. Which may be an accurate observation, since the FAA has reported for years that people are commonly pointing laser pointers at aircraft and temporarily blinding pilots. And somehow referencing the Rothschilds makes that comment “antisemitic”. By that criteria maybe Bari is implying that Matt Taibbi is also antisemitic due to his reporting on the 2008 global financial crisis and focusing on the role of Goldman Sachs.
If TFP really wants to claim a fair minded, centrist high ground, it might help to lay off the half-truth propaganda it decries by other media outlets.
M.T. Greene is, as far as I can tell, is the only serious congressional voice calling out the Mike Johnson betrayal of the Republic with his FISA vote. Like yourself I'm taken aback by "gotcha" broad brush deception and character assassination without evidence. It muddies the water, uses knee-jerk emotionality and it serves the psyop. If the criminal surveillance industry continues its ascent self-preservation may demand that "we the people" abandon the internet altogether. Subscription journalism may provide an answer. Depth reporting delivered by the U.S. mail on a flash drive or other means might serve us well. Remember letter writing. Or a subscription service catalogue providing choice without the attached "snoop". Reality: The internet, which should have provided "we the people" a healthy voice and forum to create the bright future we deserve has been captured and subverted by criminal financiers and looters. It's not something else. Indeed WE are hip deep and dependent on some aspects of electronic communication but WE still have choices.
I've heard claims, and seen videos, of blue rays coming out of the sky and setting Maui on fire. In an electronic landscape where "everything means everything and nothing means anything" what do we believe? Thanks to the leviathan electronic canard surrounding us, not our eyes and ears.
I think of neither antisemitism or the race card until someone lays them on the table. In all topics, and our Constitution allows this, the conversation needs to be across the board human not divisibly stratified and emotionally manipulated. WWII fascism targeted Jews and exploited hatred on a mass scale. Isn't the act without the facts "micro" hatred that defines cancel culture and scours the internet for victims the same disease? The fascism of WWII also murdered, along with the six million Jews, another six million Christians and people of other ethnicity. My take away from Vietnam was the horror of average people trapped inside the violence of opposing ideological regimes. That seems to be the landscape being planned for "we the people."---Just saying.
In the same vein you have Biden at the WH press dinner talking about Trump being a "dictator from day one" and "bloodbath" both completely out of context.
Perhaps a more accurate characterization of MTG’s laser speculations would be plain old
fashioned ignorance. She said as much in her own defense on Don Jr’s podcast. She was just tossing around lots of names of those who could be responsible for such lasers and somehow the Rothschilds were among them. I don’t understand why this is a defense really. A parallel might be pro Palestinian students going so far as to endorse Hamas. Much of this is ignorance too. One thing that baffles me about the “far right” is their embrace of ignorance, almost as if its a path to some kind of untainted truth. While I kind of get the immediate raw appeal…sort of like listening and laughing at the wisdom of toddlers, I don’t see why anyone would seriously want to elect these folks and trust them to do the research needed to make good decision. I can only guess that there’s so much mistrust and hatred of people who know things that the impulse is to go in the other direction and embrace profound ignorance. But isn’t there a middle ground? Or some other better ground?
Speaking of the jabs, last night I saw a (previously) very healthy 65 yo retired physician who can finally play pickleball after his bout of Guillain-Barré syndrome he came down with in OCTOBER! He got it, coincidentally no doubt, after receiving a Covid booster. He was in the hospital for a week, they wanted to keep him in for a month but he said no I will recuperate at home. He said there were 3 other men in the hospital with the same condition. This is not a big metropolis where this happened. Nothing to see here.......
The UK is allowing lawsuits to continue against Astra Zeneca for "very rare" side effects related to its Covid vaccine. Here in the US those alleging injuries are denied a day in court.
If you'll only trust someone who is as blindly partisan as yourself, then the Free Press isn't for you. I'm glad TFP doesn't appeal to you, because then it'd be indistinguishable from any other partisan press. Sure they have a point of view on a few topics (Israel for one) but for the most part you won't hear a single monotone viewpoint projected here. That's good. That's the point!
Perhaps when you disagree with reasonable and informed people it's not them that's missing something? Not trying to insult you, it sounds like you've been wrapped up in internet stuff that will only make you angry and close-minded, I hope you can break free and maybe identify why people disagree with you and check if it's a values difference or an information difference that keeps your opinions apart.
Its unquestionably mostly information difference, which is my precise quibble.
Most Democrats are simply not exposed to most of the information found on “conservative” sites, which for this reason I personally view as the sites of marginalized moderates.
To be to the right of hallucinatory lunatics does not in any respect make anyone “right wing”, which of course is a derogatory term and as the saying goes, a dog whistle for the profoundly lazy rhetorical trick of calling reasonable people making reasonable but unwanted arguments Nazis.
Throughout this I kept thinking ESG. Carbon credits, I think, are a total slight of hand. The public private partnership effort is a means to push energy policies that tighten the control of the powerful over how regular citizens live their lives. The tentacles of the WEF, WHO and NGOs are far reaching.
There is a group of Bitcoin oriented young people who seem to be eyes front on the machinations of criminal finance that no one else discusses. And it seems to be the core issue behind the chaos the Republic is suffering. I discovered Witney Webb by accident while visiting family over the Christmas holiday. They seem to be young people who make sense though I'm still looking to vet their opinions. (Stay strong!!)
Hmmm. The government seems to be investigating a Central Bank Digital Currency. If that happens and we have a cashless society, the government would know everything about everyone. They would have access to your finances. They are The Bank. I don't like that idea.
I figure most people are correct about some issues, wrong about others. So my litmus test—if I'm not reading well-written stories and perspectives that I don't disagree with sometimes, then I'm probably getting spin. And I'm not growing as a free thinker. That for me is the crossroad—do we think freely or divide up into teams?
'Shredding and defecating on legal traditions'? Are you serious? Well Unsaint, we have (apparently) a Supreme Court who will give a President (possibly Trump again) who can, if it's an act deemed official, have immunity for pretty much whatever the hell he wants to do. Doesn't that sound like fun? Are you good with that? (And you're worried about congressional representatives controlled by intelligence agencies.)
Wouldn't that have been the news of the week? Talk about a crossroad. Do we go back to 1775 and King George? Are we electing monarchs now? But you are right about one thing, the survival of democracy in this nation..
I have read most of the Bible. I went to Sunday School most Sundays when I was a kid. I recently reread Revelations, which I would encourage everyone to do. In my view if it is relevant to our current time it is only because the people trying to bring about the end of the world are mining it for ideas. The original was plainly just meant to scare the shit out of some early Churches to keep them on that days version of the straight and narrow.
And I may be at times a complete idiot. But I will say I am not the sort of idiot who insults people without telling them why.
Not a bad guess. As a general rule, when somebody on the internet is saying something no one would say, it is a left winger pretending to be a conservative, based on their cartoonish ideas of what "those people" think. Since they lack both wit and understanding, they generally do a poor job of it.
This new format should be titled "Blind Spot". How about the green energy fiasco? The selling out of our SPR. Biden's new tax proposals. Our shrinking economy. Who's funding BLM 2.0. Fentanyl deaths. Illegal immigration. Continued pushing of the covid shot. Student loan cancelations. The overall failure of our education system. So much more to be concerned about than Kristi Noem or the absurd press correspondence dinner.
All of these topics are 100% more worth than a governors dog. Guess that’s what happens in a free press world … attacks on potential VPs. How about a story … any story on the day to day activity of our current VP.
That may be so, but more voters these days view pets the way I do, that's just a fact. Pets are like family. They are not just for the service of their owners and are not disposable. That's the political reality you're dealing with, even if you set aside the humane issues.
She was a responsible pet owner. The dog had murdered a neighbor's chickens. If the quote about hating it is correct that is disturbing. But so much is taken out of context that I am not even interested enough to investigate.
Killing poultry is different from attacking a child. She could have compensated the chicken owners and tried to find another home for the dog, somewhere that it didn't have access to livestock. Or tried to hire the services of a dog trainer who specializes in behavioral issues and aggression. The dog did something that its natural instincts told it to do. This was an extreme on-the-spot solution, and if I may say, it looks redneck as hell, and if there's anything Trump and the GOP don't need, it's yet more fodder for the liberal media who already brand his supporters as a bunch of rednecks. It actually reinforces the stereotype. Why give them ammunition? Noem is finished and I won't miss her.
I think she acted as a responsible owner of an animal that killed her neighbor's poultry and turned on her. But I like rednecks. Strong, practical, no nonsense folks.
I generally don't have a problem with rednecks as long as they're not hurting animals, but most of the voting public sees them as backwards and crude and something out of Deliverance, whether fairly or unfairly. The last thing Trump's campaign needs is a hurricane of redneck jokes leading up to the election. Most Americans are animal lovers and don't live on farms.
So consult with a veterinarian and/or dog behavior specialist and as a last resort, have it euthanized if there is no solution. Maybe the dog had a medical problem making it aggressive that could have been treated. Don't go redneck. And for God's sake don't put it in a book if you have political ambitions. How tone deaf can you be.
Yeah. Not a deal killer for me. I don't know much about Noem except she challenged drug trafficking on the reservations which i thought was good and was excoriated for same (how dare you assert we are trafficking drugs?Racism!).
The Free Press (aka The Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project) would literally have ZERO subject matter if it were not for the constant failures of Democratic policies across the United States. But regardless of the constant highlighting of failures that are in this publication, Bari and the editors just can't miss a chance to throw a snarky comment at conservatives. Real, substantive harm is done to the nation on a daily basis by Democrats. But since Republicans are just :bad" it won't matter.
If you click on the link accompanying Bari’s smear of Kristi Noem, it takes you to an article in The Guardian. If you read past a retelling of the criticism 1952 “Republican candidate for vice-president, Richard Nixon received for accepting his dog checkers as a political gift” and scroll past a re-post of 2012 “Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney” being “pilloried for tying a dog to the roof of the family car” you come to Kristi Noem, “a strong contender to be named running mate to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee”.
Here are a few pertinent quotes that provide context:
“on the way home after the hunt, Noem stopped to talk to a local family, Cricket 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”.
“When Noem finally grabbed Cricket, she says, the dog “whipped around to bite me”. Then, as the chickens’ owner wept, Noem repeatedly apologised, wrote the shocked family a check “for the price they asked, and helped them dispose of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime”.
By NOT providing context to stories like the Noem piece, and past pieces on other Make America Great Again republicans, Bari, Nellie and Ollie, make obvious that they have an agenda.
Yes. Part of the problem is that city people are totally detached from the realities of nature which is lived by rural people. A rogue dog that can't be trusted is not safe for anyone, even their owner. The dog was 14 months old--well past the point where such behavior would be acceptable. Plus, if the dog bit a PERSON, the ensuing law suit could break the owner financially. I would have put down that dog in a "New York minute," and I have always owned dogs and loved dogs. Time for some education for city folks on this topic.
I have a major soft spot in my heart for dogs and believe anyone who would abuse an animal is sociopathic. When you finally hear the context in this case, it’s not the sociopath abuse of a dog, but a common response in rural communities to a dog who kills livestock. I would never have approached the situation that way and would have worked much harder to train the dog, but getting only part of a story to manipulate my emotions about dogs seems like more of the typical propaganda narrative against opposing candidates and that is just crazy making. We really need our sense-making institutions to quit lying to us.
And do you know what happens to dogs in the city that are aggressive and bite people? They are either relinquished to a shelter that will euthanize them, or they will be confiscated and euthanized by animal control.
Tim K-- thank you for clarifying this story! Would've been so easy of TFP to give a balanced accounting. This makes them look like so many others (NYT,WSJ,NPR) an arm of the DNC!!!
Thanks for the info. I figured there was more to the story. But the dog murderer thing illustrates a broader problem - humans who kill other humans are deemed worthy of protection by the can't put 2 and 2 together crowd. I want a divorce from the effing people and I want to go with Daddy.
Okay, so there are still things she could have done besides shooting a young dog. There are dogs who have behavior problems, and there are ways to deal with them. There are experts who can train them, and if worse comes to worst, she could have given the dog up to a shelter or rehomed it. Maybe it wasn't meant to live on a farm around other animals. Unless a dog is violent with children and people and absolutely can't be a pet for anyone, there are other answers.
Regardless of the circumstances, this will absolutely NOT play with the public, left, right, or center. She would be a disastrous choice. Too much of a liability. And it is beyond bizarre why she would see fit to put that in a book. Somebody should have told her, it's not a good look.
According to TK, who bothered to read through the Republicans-are-not-good-fur-baby-parents leadup to the Noem story the dog was with her visiting neighbors when it got loose and murdered more than one chicken and when she grabbed it the dog turned and tried to bite her. That dog was a liability. I commend her for doing what needed to be done.
Read the rest of her story. She said she hated the dog. And she shot it in the face. She then grabbed a”smelly” goat that was mean (and uncastrated—not exactly the goat’s fault) and shot it in the same gravel pit right before her kids got off the school bus.
I am an Independent voter. Trump needs to show Noem the door. She is proud of killing an animal she hated and that’s fine. I wouldn’t vote for a ticket with her on it no matter who was at the top.
And yes. I understand the difference between farm and ranch animals and domestic pets. She sounds like a very irresponsible animal owner to me.
And you can call me anything you want but my pets don’t get shot, put down because I can’t handle them or abandoned. And I would never accept someone like her as number two in a ticket.
Amen. In Trump's situation, he can't afford one wrong move or bad choice. He can't afford a Sarah Palin dragging his ticket down. Noem would be a liability on his ticket. She probably would be anyway even without this, with her various issues. Now the pundits and comics are sharpening their knives.
I read it too, why did you think I didn't? I'm still not giving her a pass. There are other ways to deal with these situations. Dog owners do it all the time.
Some do, some don't. Rural people put down dogs that kill farm animals all the time. Most states have laws that protect those people from animal abuse charges.
"There are dogs who have behavior problems, and there are ways to deal with them"
Sorry, but it was clear from the article that the dog was non-compliant before it savaged the chickens. It didn't kill them because it was hungry, it killed them for sport and then tried to bite Noem when she tried to stop it. As someone raised with farm animals and hunting dogs, I will tell you from experience, the dog was aberrant and no amount of training was going to change it. You may may not like the manner in which she killed it, but it was the right thing to do.
Doesn't matter. Then rehome it somewhere off a farm, give it to someone who has no other animals. Consult with a vet over the best solution. If the vet agrees it should be put down, then do that. But don't go Annie Oakley on it. Killing it should be a last resort. I can't imagine putting any pet of mine to death without getting another opinion. She put it in her book, so she opened herself up to public criticism and judgment. There are too many other qualified veep picks who didn't shoot a dog. Even the conservative Babylon Bee is shredding her over this. When you lose the conservative press, it's over.
Celia I am beginning to see that it is not leftist or Democrat. Rather I think it is elitism. The elites are having a falling out. Nothing more. Nothing less. And I feel nothing but contempt for people who feel they are "elite" for doing nothing more than attending the "right school" or living in the "right neighborhood". Is that not the true exemplar of privilege?
And so you should, I have his towels and sheets, Mike is an all American company, not good enough for Bari and Co they would rather promote Taylor Swift who doesn’t give a shit about America.
Not to mention, in their very first issue, they have to put their abortion agenda front and center right in your face. What was the point of that? I find it a turnoff.
"The Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project". Yeah, I think you nailed it. Problem is the project has no objectives other than to increase subscribers.
I've been disgusted with the media attack on Noem by "journalists" who clearly never grew up anywhere near a rural area.
Let me put this simply: not *all* dogs are good dogs. Most are good dogs, fortunately. But if you've never owned a dog with serious, unmanageable problems, you don't have a clue how destructive and dangerous such a dog can be. More so where there are other animals involved.
On a farm, the rational option (as with any animal that has to be put down) is to put a bullet through the dog's brain. I've never done it, btw, but the fact that Noem did is, indeed, testament to her grit.
Actually, the First Family ended up with TWO biting German Shepherds. One I might attribute to a defect in the dog. Two points to defects in the owners.
The Biden’s kept those miserable dogs that continued to bite and injure numerous secret service officers, putting their favorite but dreadful dog above the officers sworn to protect or die; a telling display of disregard and just plain abuse of those they consider beneath them. Not to mention vindictive side of repeatedly refusing to grant RFK secret service protection although other candidates w/ only 1% of vote are approved. And affirming years of solitary confinement of J6 prisoners to keep the myth of insurrection alive while ignoring terrorists & criminals pouring across the border; or poorly disguised disdain for women with Title 9 executive orders that puts caricatures above them. Oh no no no, that’s kind “friendly” Joe!
The very same "friendly" Joe who liked to swim naked while female Secret Service agents were on duty. No regard for the fact this made them extremely uncomfortable.
Ugh. Didn't know about that one. That's sure not a job I could do. I wonder if those XX agents will someday seek out the courts (or the court of the media) now that its been determined presidents are not "above the law".
Excerpt from an article by Miranda Devine in today's NYPost about Joe Biden and the myth of his so-called decency.
There’s nothing decent about:
Helping your family sell out the country to shady foreigners for tens of millions of dollars — and then pretending you know nothing about it.
Inviting millions of illegal migrants into the country — and then lying that the border is secure.
Inviting a transgender influencer to the White House who bares their breasts on the White House lawn.
Sniffing and fondling children and women every chance you get.
Allegedly sexually assaulting Tara Reade.
Presiding over such a decline in decorum in Washington that cocaine is discovered at the White House and a Democratic staffer posts an X-rated video of his gay sex romp inside a Senate hearing room.
Rewriting Title IX into a radical attack on girls and women.
Allowing White House and campaign staff to refer routinely to Trump as “Hitler Pig.”
Cursing out staff and calling a reporter a “stupid son of a bitch.”
Refusing to acknowledge your out-of-wedlock grandchild until forced to issue a statement as part of a child support settlement Hunter Biden struck with the mother, and then failing to include the little girl in the annual family Christmas stocking lineup at the White House.
Lying that the innocent truck driver involved in the fatal collision with your first wife was drunk.
Refusing to provide Secret Service protection to Bobby Kennedy Jr., despite threats against him and the history of assassination in his family.
Botching the withdrawal from Afghanistan so that 13 service members are killed by a suicide bomber and then ordering a revenge hit that takes out an innocent Afghan aid worker and his family.
Continually looking at your watch in boredom as the bodies of the 13 heroes are repatriated to Dover Air Force Base, and then infuriating the families by making it about yourself and the fantasy that your son died in combat, too.
Allowing your dogs to attack Secret Service agents.
Role-playing as a devout Catholic while championing abortion on demand until the moment of birth.
If you want to vote for Joe Biden, that’s your choice, but don’t pretend it’s a vote for decency.
Dogs have a tendency to somewhat mimic their owners. Having 2 biting dogs is very likely to be an issue with the owners. That said, it is very possible that the Bidens have very little actual contact with the dogs outside of photo ops. So hard to know what is real or fake with lifetime politicians.
I've wondered about that. But I recall reading something that suggested that the Bidens spend as much time with their dogs as they can.
The real question, of course, is why both of these dogs were allowed to continue to bite people for such a long time before being removed from the White House. In the real world, a dog that bites even ONCE may be ordered put down. To subject the people around the POTUS to repeated incidents of biting without consequence is a very clear indicator that even Biden's dogs are not subject to the same rules as the rest of us.
Doubtful it was the dog's fault. I've had some great ones but none better than Billy, the big Golden Retriever whom we all adored. As a pup he nipped me and I bit him right back (Ok a bit extreme but those who've come to know me probably aren't surprised). He got the message. Never was a more loyal dog, gentle to most but fierce to aggressors. Biden's pets and family are a mess. Why is anyone surprised that America is suffering the same fate.
The dogs weren't isolated incidents. There is Hunter, whose misdeeds are widely known. And poor Ashley who can't have a normal relationship because of her deviant "dad." Remind me again why people thought it wise to put our nation in the hands of such malevolent miscreants..........
Agreed. But having to shoot a vicious dog and saying you hate a dog are different things. Farm animals are put down all the time, usually reluctantly because they're valuable, or with acceptance because they're a financial drain. But "hate"? That I find strange.
If a dog has killed other animals (either beloved pets or valuable livestock), bit people (especially children), or destroyed property (especially of personal value), I can easily understand using the word "hate."
It's not a great rhetorical choice in a country where everyone practically worships dogs. But I get where she's coming from.
Right. People treat dogs today as if they were their children. A dog is a dog, not a child, and a dog needs lots of love and care, yes, but also boundaries. Again, the overall problem is that too many people today are detached from nature and don't know how to set boundaries that a dog understands and obeys. And when you have one that is violent, they ignore it.
Growing up, whenever my mom and I expressed concern over bad weather or some other challenge for our family pet, my very sensible, practical, literally-the-son-of-a-small-town-butcher Daddy would say sternly, “It’s a DOG!” He truly is a kind and compassionate man and loves the little doggie he cares for now (as his mind slips farther and farther away,) but he (and my mom, as well) understood animals’ place in relation to human beings. We live in an upside down world!
i'm pretty confident that present day delivery drivers (amazon, ups, fed ex,) and usps carriers will agree with you on that "he's friendly" lie, too. a lot of dogs just don't like anyone in any kind of uniform for some reason, even if you've had them since a wee puppy (i speak from personal experience and have heard anecdotally from others).
I like dogs (I even tend to make a fuss over every friendly dog I meet), but I don't like them well enough to own one at this point. I grew up with Miniature Pinschers, but the reality was that they had to be locked up every time people came over, because they WOULD bite people they didn't know well. I fell in love with cats in my teens, so cats have always been my pet of choice as an adult.
Our younger son wanted a dog badly, so we had a Jack Russell Terrier for several years. Over time, the dog became less and less manageable, in spite of training, until eventually he was biting even me (whom he had hitherto viewed as the pack leader). My husband demanded that I get rid of him, so I took him to the pound, knowing they would almost certainly put him down as unadoptable. It broke my son's heart (and mine), but we had run out of options.
When we were planning to move to a more rural, but rougher, part of town, I was planning to get a dog for protection. Now that we aren't moving, the likelihood of getting any other dog has gone way down. I don't have the energy to deal with a dog "just because."
I get that most people adore them, but I can't help thinking that too many people adore them primarily because they love having an animal that worships them.
i remember when jack russell terriers jumped in popularity when "frasier" rose to fame, but the breed is too intelligent and high energy. it needs to work and are successful ratters because they love to dig and run! there are so many breeds of dogs out there (just like cats!) but most are not meant to be taken out of their ideal environment (rural settings) and made into suburban and urban (apartment) dogs or be around kids.
You'd think they'd have trained the dog or tied up the dog or euthanized it before it got to that point. Hating an animal is weird. Just saying that it's more than a life-on-the-farm thing.
Some dogs resist all attempts at training. And being tied up all the time is no life for a dog, especially if they howl or bark all the time. Some dogs are escape artists who will manage to break any confinement.
She probably didn't kill the dog before because she hated the idea of doing it. Who wants to kill a dog? She didn't kill it until she had reached her breaking point--until she had reached the point where she hated the dog more than she hated the idea of killing the dog.
I agree that would have made more sense to euthanize it sooner (which would still have been done by shooting it). But when you consider that other people's feelings about the dog were likely involved (children's, spouses?), I get why it was delayed until there was no other choice.
Well, that makes sense -- that they'd tried everything else first. And I wasn't questioning the use of a gun. Or advocating keeping a dog on a chain all its life.
My question is in regard to her feelings about the dog. Altogether too passionate -- I would think -- for a seasoned farm person.
In any event, Trump needs a counterweight who can help him reassure the jittery, not choose someone who will make them more so.
I suspect that the people hating on Noem have never been in the unenviable position of having to be the decision-maker in dealing with a pet that has become vicious.
He was with her at a neighbor's place, got loose and killed more than one chicken. He killed the chicken then dropped it before moving on to the next one so he was not killing because he was hungry. The dog was a predator. While in her presence. When she grabbed him to subdue him the dog tried to bite her. That is clear indicia of a dangerous dog.
She was training it to be a hunting dog. The dog didn’t hunt. So she stopped at a place with chickens. Seriously? Yep. That kind of judgment belongs to someone who could send in the SEALs. No, thank you.
FWIW she is not my pick. But I do not have an issue with what she did. It was a working dog unfit for its duty. It killed the neighbor's chickens. It turned on its owner. An animal like that is a liability.
The hell it is. Dogs are trainable and by her own account she shot the dog in the face, then grabbed a “smelly” goat and shot him, too. That’s not life on a farm, that’s disgusting and cruel and she makes me sick.
Sorry, not sorry. I will never see that woman in the same way again.
Ditto. I'm not a fan of the Noem apologists, sorry. It reveals a mean streak, and regardless, the optics of it for a potential veep pick are terrible. Choose a running mate who didn't murder a dog.
That it happens, fine and true. To write and brag about it when you're angling for the VP slot shows some judgement issues. People love dogs, especially puppies. The first thing a successful politician needs to do is be able to read a room. That may fly in agricultural South Dakota (or even my state, Ohio). But the optics are horrible and it highlights a lack of judgement on the governor's part.
Kristi's prancing around in those "come to South Dakota TV" ads--too cute!--shows her penchant for self-promotion and her lack of seriousness. Now, saddled with a dead dog, she isn't going anywhere.
My first thought was exactly that. Is she so tone deaf as to think this could do nothing but hurt her politically. My second thought was, she's a psychopath so that's why she didn't understand the ramifications.
But the thing is, when you're trying to be a presidential candidate's running mate, you had better give a fuck about a lot of people's feels, because voters vote on their feels whether we like it or not. Fail.
A decent report contains the backstory but the MSM and apparently TFP were only interested in the fact that Governor Noem killed a dog, letting readers think this was Lassie or Snoopy. (In the first episode of House of Cards, the ruthless Frank Underwood kills an injured dog to put it out of its misery - possibility the analogy some reporters wanted to draw.)
Dwight Schrute attempted to educate his coworkers at The Office about life on a farm, many times. But I don’t think many of them really understood, especially Angela, who blamed him for the death of Sprinkles. Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica.
I agree with you to a degree NCMaureen. Having grown up in rural Louisiana I have memories of having to make hard decisions about putting down animals by shooting them. I recall my grandfather having to kill a puppy that he didn't believe was viable. It was rough to watch, but today I understand the compassion he had for not wanting another living thing to suffer, and taking the most humane route he could to end it.
That said, the Noem story wouldn't be so hard to stomach if she hadn't written “I hated that dog,”. That statement was the achilles heal for her and used as bait for wide criticism on X and all the left leaning media sites. If you read the Gaurdian piece its clear that dog was problematic and aggressive and the The Free Press could have focused on the numerous examples Noem gave, but chose to ignore that and write the hit piece on her instead....and yes....Mitt Romney dog incident reference was as chickenshit as it gets. That's the ever present left leaning bias that we continue to witness bleeding through the veneer at TFP and won't get remedied until Bari brings on journalists that are center or center right to balance the writing IMO.
Yeah. People seem to think that farms are all unicorns and nicey-nicey. They don't realize it is mostly about death. Little things being killed by bigger things then being killed by even bigger things. Half-eaten corpses being devoured by the scavengers. Even the plants are trying to kill each other for a better chance of survival. Farms are a dynamic, energizing example of the cycle of life -- which is mostly about managing death. And a scrap of available protein is perhaps the most important prize any one of the millions of life form on a farm can win.
Noem did not shoot a puppy because it was annoying. She shot an adult dog (14 months is over one year old, in case you have trouble with the math, like parents who describe their preschooler as "38 months old") that was killing other animals.
So many are separated from country/farm/ranch life. I was raised on a ranch and this happens. Sometimes dogs need to be put down. At least people could do is read Old Yeller. Sometimes it’s in everyone’s best interest to put down a dog and let it be done.
I often agree with you Maureen, and I will say it is somewhat disengenous for those having fits over Kristi Noem's "mercy" killing when they themselves are eating factory farmed animals delivered to them in plastic wrap. However, here I can't disagree with you more! These animals were pets. Both could have been adopted out; the dog could have been trained. I am not a fan of Biden but at least he didn't kill Commander. Shooting your pets, one because it is annoying (I don't know why she shot the goat) looks to me to be on some kind of psychopath continuum.
So everyone should take their sick dogs and cats out in the back yard and shoot them?? Or was she afraid that if she took it to a vet the vet would raise an objection to euthanizing a healthy young dog for a behavioral issue?
She sucks, and I don't want her as Trump's running mate. When even conservative media is ripping you, you're done. She should have kept it to herself.
Sick animals are often put down. It is considered a merciful thing at some point. Having vets do it is a pretty modern phenomena. But this was not a dog with a health problem. It displayed predatory behavior.
I think what she did is horrible and that's that. The dog was 14 months old and not well trained. It goes to a home/rescue that trains it well and gives it a chance. Where there aren't any chickens. Hell, my mom had backyard chickens and a neighborhood dog killed one. They didn't take him out back and shoot him.
And I sure wouldn't go bragging about it in a book. If she can't read the room enough to know that's not gonna sit well, she has no business running for VP.
I do think it was colossally stupid for Noem to put that in a memoir. Just as I don’t want to know every pop tart or “stars” thought on well most of anything, I don’t need or want to hear any pol’s thoughts on everything either.
Most decent human beings would recognize the difference between slaughtering an animal for food and killing your family pet because you hate it, but I suppose the key word there is "decent."
So, that's the story now? A vicious chicken killer who attacked its owner? Very convenient cover story but in conflict with her original story about being upset with the 14-month-old dog's inability to hunt and shot it after it failed to hunt pheasants for her. What are we to believe about this?
I have done my share of hunting upland game birds and have run across hunters who think nothing of killing or abandoning a dog that won't hunt or one that's too old. I have come across dog carcasses in the fields where they were shot, and it disgusts me. I have had to put down old or injured dogs, and I have done so humanely. I am aware of a class of people who think that the only value of a dog's life is to bring in food. These are the people who worry me on a hunt.
As the owner of a very well trained retriever, hunting dogs are not supposed to do the killing. Even coon dogs are supposed to tree, not kill. Noem's dog was a predator. He broke loose. He killed a chicken, dropped it, then went for more. It tried to bite her. That is a dangerous dog.
One of the collies up for adoption at a collie rescue I look at (and contribute to) killed chickens in his former home. That was in the description. He was adopted by people who didn't keep chickens. I do not know if he's good with cats, but if the "after" photo is right, he's good with other big dogs.
Some dogs aren't good with smaller critters. I wouldn't adopt any of them.
We had three old dogs pass 6 months apart. We went without for awhile because we are empty nesters. But we are dog people so we had a void. My adult children insisted that we adopt a rescue. I tried, diligently, for 6 months to find a good fit. But 90% of the dogs available were pitbull mixes and I do not want a pittie. I know people who swear by them but that is a breed designed for fighting and killing. As an owner you have to be the alpha. If you are not the alpha the dog is. And that can be very dangerous with a strong dog.
Noem did not mention that history of violence in her 14-month-old wire-haired terrier in the original story. Guess it came back to her on afterthought.
So, digging deeper into Noem's account of killing her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer after it failed to hunt and Noem deemed it untrainable, she reported that on the way home, it attacked a flock of chickens and turned to bite her when she pulled back on its leash. None of this is surprising for a 14-month-old dog who is untrained, but Noem goes on to say that she "hated" that dog. My concern is for anyone on her staff who is slow to learn his job. They had better not follow her into the gravel pit.
You can’t assume the dog hadn’t had some training. A pointer who doesn’t want to hunt is kind of strange to me. I grew up with highly trained hunting dogs. Some were pointers; others English Shepard’s. Sounds like something was off with this dog. Many of the hunt dogs are wildly expensive.
Except it was a pet dog, not a farm animal. To me, it reveals something a little ugly about her character. It seems there could have been alternatives to what she did. I have no problem with TFP writing about it.
But then I already didn't care much for Noem. I find her phony and a suspect RINO. I think there are much better Veep prospects for Trump. She has too much baggage, with the extramarital affair thing as well.
I did not read anything about the Kristi Noem issue. I assumed there was more to it than was being reported, and after reading the comments here, that appears to be the case. I get that context is important, but maybe a little thought by Ms. Noem would have lead her to the decision that being a conservative she is not going to get the benefit of context from the press; it will just be reported that she killed a puppy. I get that stuff happens on farms that I do not want to know about, but maybe some things don't need to be published when you know it will be used against you.
Kristy Noem is a puppy killer. Unforgivable- and shows her cold, dark heart. I grew up on a farm too, and we euthanized animals that were terminally sick and suffering- no puppies.
Bari, who took the cheap shot at republicans in the Noem recap? The phrase was something like her actions were better than the leading Republicans who put their dogs on the roof of the car. That statement linked a wikipedia piece about Mitt Romney doing that 30 years ago. You cant say you bring light not heat then throw in cheap shots like that. Leading Republicans? One 30 year old example? My guess is Ollie put that in as he takes cheap shots at conservatives and MAAAaaaaGAs on a regular basis. He is damaging the brand. If I am wrong and you took the cheap shot, I am sure it was onetime lapse
I feel badly, but I haven’t seen anybody stand up for Oliver, other than Bari.
I, too, was stunned that they put him in charge of this project (which I found confusing and a little tough to read this morning). I’m starting to believe other posters, now, that the mission of TFP is to reeducate all of us white (look at the hands holding the phones and tablets in those doofey photos folks send into TGIF - full disclosure: I sent one in last fall…) liberal arts college grads and bring us back into the reliable blue-voting bloc.
I would really like to know what caused her to decide to hire him. Initially, I thought he was one of the interns, and was being given a trial run as editor due to talent. But that is evidently not the case.
Apparently he's British? Former editor of The Spectator World, which seems to be a lot more conservative than TFP. If Bari hired him thinking he would bring a more conservative view to TFP, she miscalculated badly.
In current politics a Conservative in British politics is not a Conservative in US politics - their version is more our center or center-left, which aligns with TFP perspective. For the British version of US politics I much prefer National Review's Charles C.W. Cooke, who is now a US citizen- and far more in tune with our founding fathers and individual freedoms.
Charles C.W. Cooke is awesome! He writes with biting sarcasm about the various spineless politicians in power. He knows the U.S. Constitution better than most Americans. And he thinks deeply about the issues facing the country. Anyone who reads TFP should also check out National Review.
I haven't heard much lately about Biden's dog Commander, who was biting White House staff left and right. Did Commander just disappear? Maybe it's time for some serious investigative journalism.
Maybe. But I also think dogs today have possible medical issues. I assume you know they get as many vaccines as humans do these days. And are taken to the vet for the slightest issues, where they get even more meds. Another toxic business model people have been trained to use.
I see lots of comments about how Noem's problem was that she didn't train, or didn't know how to train, the dog even though it's pretty clear this is just one of several dogs she's worked with. Biden has had multiple dogs (don't forget they had to take his previous dog 'Major' out of the WH as well) with obedience and control issues.
Perhaps both of those beautiful dogs were for ornamental purpose. See Mr commander in chief. Backfire….ownership requires bonding as well as responsibility. Hopefully both were reformed.
(JOKING! I love Kristi Noem, but couldn't pass up on that softball. I fully expect that TFP knows someone in intelligence who is ready to launch a full investigation into my background)
The opening statement should be refined to say “selective light not heat”. The promise to be fair may be suspended if FP staff doesn’t like something. Then it’s open season to use free fall snark and sarcasm (the latter coming from Greek word “sarcazo” meaning “to tear flesh”), but of course that’s only used to assure a truly balanced reveal of “the full truth” not just opinion or deeply held bias, right?
Quite an interesting perspective. I am willing to bet the ven diagram of people complaining about the dog thing and the people who are ok with abortions has a lot of overlap. Interesting cognitive dissonance.
Yep, these are primarily the same people that would call their dog a "furkid" and a real kid a "clump of cells". And think that they are amazing humans for doing so. SMH
The Free Press is what it is: a refuge for liberal media who knows their bias is a wrong, struggle with it daily, but can’t help themselves when a tidbit pops up that gives them the chance to take a shot at republicans/MAGA/conservatives. These writers are like AA meeting attendees who profess the evils of alcohol but relapse when a drink is put in front of them.
Take the abortion story to start off this newsletter. Nobody likes to hear about a baby with abnormal and likely fatal development issues. Nobody likes to hear about a mother whose life could be in danger. All valid points, yet brought up in a way to suggest resistance to abortion is evil. Yet, is there ever a story about the young children orphaned because their mother died of a drug overdose with drugs brought through our open border?
I personally don’t mind reading TFP’ work, but always know in the back of my mind they are really lean just a little less left, as they say. I want multiple points of view. The Free Press is just one view. I wouldn’t call it trust, as Bari alludes to, but rather a knowledge that I’m getting a watered down but still known point of view. I just hope she doesn’t think that by being making jokes, she is slipping her bias past us readers. It’s still there, just more subtle.
Yes, the reports of women with seriously damaged fetuses who cannot obtain a legal and safe abortion are appalling and republicans need to get their act together on reasonable exceptions for rape, incest, and health of the mother circumstances. That said, these cases are the exceptions in a sea of situations where two people are too irresponsible to use birth control, and ought to use redundant methods if necessary. Abortion as a lazy person’s birth control method is vastly more common. The published article raises serious policy concerns, but honest reporting demands that stories of late term abortions that involve the in-utero dissection of a viable fetus be covered as well and at least as frequently.
Looks like another big hit for the Free Press. The combination of incisive reporting with tongue-in-cheek style ("tentifada" made my day) is irresistible. Looking forward to more. BTW, the report on the Air Force contract award for development of an unmanned fighter jet is long overdue. The money spent on developing advanced manned aircraft to stay one step ahead of our adversaries has flown (forgive me) in the face of IT/UAV technology that has flooded the skies with advanced weapons that do not require the additional size, weight, cost, and operational limits imposed on the design by the addition of a human pilot. Right now, we have the capability to flood the skies with swarms of small armed drones that can defeat the latest manned fighters. and if we can do it, you can bet that the PRC can as well.
You could make the comments sorted and searchable (like Amazon reviews) - star or thumbs up thumbs down system and you can choose to read both the positive and negative.
Just to be crystal clear: Sort by "Top First." The subject comment has 19 "likes;" 6 at the time I responded. The Previous Top Post has 106 "likes;" don't recall how many at time of response.
I prefer 'new first' because I enjoy reading all of the comments. I really don't pay attention to how many likes. And I really don't like intentionally pinning a preferred comment.
I prefer the new first option too. Likes are fun, but I kinda wish no one ever thought that up, cuz it is distracting and for those vulnerable to manipulation, not this group of course, it definitely influences attention.
Thanks, Unwoke. Is it still pinned? It looks like the comment falls in numeric order in terms of its number of likes when viewed "top first" and when I view comments by "newest" the comment falls away. On rare occasion (maybe even only once before) I've seen that Substack highlights likes by TFP staff members.
Being me, I have long vastly more enjoyed going into hostile territory and trying to keep my cool and say relevant and intelligent things. But it always gets me censored quickly.
How has America become so effing stupid? Simple: dialogue is suppressed. Alternative and very valid and viable ideas are simply squashed. Those with important insights into how to solve problems Democrats SAY they want to solve are silenced and ignored.
How is possible to claim sincere goodwill and humanitarianism when the whole focus is achieving apparent consensus and not practical effects that are useful?
The mobs and censors are never on the side that means well. Never.
Does this mean TFP is turning into the Drudge report? Drudge is an eclectic news site, reporting on a vast number of subjects from serious news to "Man Bites Dog" articles.
And no comment on the reports that the New York Times is preparing an investigative piece on Bari? This might not be a good time for Ms. Weiss to antagonize the people who would be her defenders but for a touch more balance in TFP reporting.
"Right now, we have the capability to flood the skies with swarms of small armed drones that can defeat the latest manned fighters. and if we can do it, you can bet that the PRC can as well."
In a dystopian world a new form of A.I. weaponry has been created. All these drone bots need is a profile: age, sex, fitness, uniform, and ethnicity. Nuclear is obsolete. Take out your entire enemy virtually risk free. Just characterize him, release the swarm, and rest easy.
Something I have been saying since 2008(?) "That Little Silicon Chips is Changing Everything. Now some changes will be Good (I've read about Maasai using The Net to find out the best time to sell a cow) some Not So Good (Facial Recognition). But if you are over (say) 60, the world you grew up in...GONE.
In the Air Staff at the Pentagon in the 1980s, I mentioned to some of the pilots in the fighter mafia who were busily selling the development of the Next Generation Fighter for the 21st Century that, if I were in the Army or in Moscow, I would be feverishly working on the development of advanced drone technology to develop swarms of cheap, intelligent UAVs to counter any manned fighters on the horizon. It turns out that the Army was actually working on this for air defense. The thinking of the Air Force at the time ("The mission of the Air Force is to fly and to fight, and don't you forget it!") was to ignore the great leaps in UAV/AI technology and to press on to develop ever more expensive fighter aircraft that the nation could hardly afford to buy in quantity. Like the mounted French knights in their expensive armor and weaponry, mounted on expensive steeds who fell to the yeomen with their cheap longbows and swarms of cheap arrows at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, the new knights of the air failed to recognize the changed nature of combat. And so with the massed lines of infantry at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg mowed down with cannister shot and rifled infantry weapons, and the lines of infantry at Verdun who faced the entrenched machineguns, and the dense fortifications of the Maginot line which fell to a combination of airpower and tanks. Military technology always seems to lead military thinking about the best way to fight, making a truism that generals are always ready to fight the last war. Have we learned anything? We'll have to wait and see.
Whoever wrote the blurb on Kristi Noem would do well to read the linked account in The Guardian. Unlike Commander and Major, Biden’s biting pooches, Cricket attacked only Noem herself — after massacring a flock of chickens. Kinda like that cuddly neighborhood pitty that rips the face off a toddler, Cricket was a killer that had to be put down.
Speaking of our Dog Whisper in Chief, it’s chilling that he leaves our troops and untold numbers of Afghanis exposed and turns his back on our closest ally in the Middle East with the same cruel, calculating heartlessness ascribed to Noem. Yet the leftist media types applaud his “decency.” I’m really disappointed in TheFP for not digging deeper. Anything for a chuckle.
The Kristi Norm bit didn't just undermine the credibility of this article and its authors, it showed us the extent to which these LA California Bubble-ites have no concept of rural life.
They think killing a dog is the most shocking and inhuman idea ever because that's how their television stories manipulate their feelings. If you can't handle a movie where the dog dies, you have the emotional maturity of a child.
ANYONE growing up on a farm lives with death constantly.
I'm more concerned with the leftist Democrat anti-racists who decided rape isn't a bit deal if it's "resistance" and if the victim is a Jew. But TFP has less outrage for that than they do for Trump, MTG, Kristi or whatever fashionable leftist target of the day.
Oh btw, we have American citizens still held hostage in Gaza and Biden has totally ignored them, never once said their names.
Growing up we had an Angus we named Blackie. One day Blackie wasn’t at the trough. Not long afterward, our mom informed us Blackie was on our plates. I wonder if any of the Bubble-ites has ever read The Yearling.
As for our hostages, it’s hard for Biden to say their names when he probably hasn’t bothered to learn them.
Many of us have read The Yearling and seen the film. I don't think any of the Baxters hated Flag. If anything, they hated the sad necessity of shooting him.
Kristi Noem wrote she hated the dog. Then killed a goat she also hated for good measure. Read her own description. No one manipulated the story. This is a self-inflicted wound, not a hit job.
Not every dog is Snoopy or Lassie. My guess is she did hate the dog, which, as I said was, a killer. Should she have waited till it mauled a child? And by the way, the goat was an uncastrated male that was attacking her kids. Again, not a fuzzy, cuddly pet. Look, I’m no Kristi Noem fan. But she did what she had to do. I guess, for that matter, Biden did too.
Never said it was. And perhaps you should read the excerpt from Noem’s book before you start lecturing other people. I don’t care how many cows or dogs or goats your family killed. That’s your business. But Noem put this out there and she’s hoping to show how she’d be a tough VP. For many of us Disney huggy feely types who’ve been called all kinds of names for giving a damn that a potential VP candidate shot her dog in the face, excuse me. I really don’t care what you think. You do you and I will do me.
Bari - this would have been a very good idea. If you hadn't put Wiseman in charge. More of the same snarky, left leaning, content-light silliness won't enhance the Free Press. And no, Greene never talked about Jewish space lasers. She may be a little nutty but putting words in her mouth isn't journalism. It's mindless prattle. Journalism would be stating that Ilan Omar credibly committed immigration fraud and should be sitting back in Somalia; not sullying our Congress. Put me down as part of the 51 percent that wants immediate mass deportations the minute Biden is sent scurrying away in his Depends.
I understand the Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project slinging knives at Noem, but I would've expected more about the going's on in another northern state; specifically the calls of "Death to America" in Dearborn. That concerns me a touch more than a dog having to be put down. As a Jew, I'd think that would be top of mind for Bari as well....
On the bright side though, Columbia made an announcement that there would be no repercussions for the leftists occupying the university. Good news for them, until their dream of a socialist workers paradise comes to true, they won't have to worry about their poor decisions affecting their future employment potential.
I've been hoping for a roundup like this for some time (I even sent you a note about it). But... I would really like more hard content and a little less snark. Leave that for Nellie on Friday.
I personally would take MTG any day over Ilhan Omar and Talib. MTG may be crass and possibly even racist but at least she's for our country and a proud American. With her it's no different than a family squabble. The other two, they don't even want USA to exist, they're just using the freedom and liberty here to further other countries, specifically other countries against our own. They're utter disgrace.
re: “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” Careful there, Wyatt Earp. We shoot back. Ask our dogs.
re: "I'm a grown man running against a six-year old." Uh, no, Joe Stolen. You're a lifelong grifter, who now in his second childhood wanders about and soils himself, running against the most successful - if irritating - president in anyone's recollection.
re: Jewish space lasers. Sounds hilarious, doesn't it? I don't know lasers' ethnicity, but the KNOWN technology is there to set fires from space using laser energy. Why would anyone do that? Don't know. But then our gub'ment told us that the Clot Shots were safe, ivermectin dangerous, and masks worked. Oh, and that surveillance of Candidate Trump by the Deep State was a conspiracy theory. I won't dismiss anything until I see proof with my own eyes.
re: ADHD. Don't be so flippant. I was the most adamant pooh-pooh-er of that diagnosis until I finally had to come out of denial and admit that one of my children was severely affected. Thirty years later I still don't know whence it came, but it has devastated my son, the only real love of my life.
re: Weinstein. The feminists and Me-Too-ers are going to have to make up their minds: are adult women boss-babes with "agency," people who control their own bodies and are perfectly within their rights to rent them out at considerable profit, including parts in feature films for a little slap-and-tickle, or are they vulnerable little girls who are being taken advantage-of by those Mean Old Men and have to be shepherded through life because they can't take care of themselves? Or maybe what they really want is to have it both ways.
edit: one last thing. The ReBiblicans are going to lose their asses over this abortion thing, and there is a Very Good Reason: they should. Put your emotions aside; put your religion aside; put aside your hatred of feminism, and sit down on the same side of the table with people who disagree with you and work out a solution. And that goes double for the "My body, my choice" people on the other side. You are NOT doing what the people want. Americans are a practical people and are embarrassed by the both of you.
Can you name me one Democrat politician who is willing to compromise on abortion? Up to 9 months? Viability? Surviving abortion? Parental notification? Talk about extremists. Of course none of this is ever highlighted in the press.
And "put your religion aside"? You don't have to go to church to know a baby when you see one.
Please name the Democrat politicians who will compromise on abortion, I'm very interested. Also, please tell me how you would solve the abortion 'problem.'
Development is a continuum - analog, not digital, for the computer/electronic geeks. Two points in the process can be easily identified, though: conception and birth. Those are your boundary conditions. Everything in between is a continuous process - I liken it to the process of converting a blueprint (DNA) into a house; at no point can you say, "This second it's a house (citizen) and gets full protection; one second ago it's not," so you have to make a distinction.
To my eye, you do that by picking a point in the gestation, understanding that it's arbitrary, but as Brandeis famously said, "Sometimes it's more important that a thing be solved than that it be solved RIGHT."
You sit with others and you argue the points, but first and foremost you show respect for each other as decent human beings trying to solve the problem, understanding that everybody will have to give a little. The moment that moral dogma or gods come into the process, it's over and you'd might as well go home.
What is that point in time? Well, that's what you argue over.
Just my technique. Could there be others? Sure, but that one seems the simplest and easiest to implement.
"understanding that everybody will have to give a little" Please tell me one Democrat who will "give a little"? In Nebraska we went from 6 weeks to 12 weeks, and the one Democrat who voted for it was pilloried and driven out of the party within a week (Mike McDonnell).
Yes, reading today's Wiseman offering I detected the distinct whiff of Times-ianism. It is creeping into lots of writing at TFP. Were it not for the comments, I am certain I would not stick around as a subscriber.
Tend to agree, though I think with Bowles it is a combination of coastal echo chamber ignorance and smug self-satisfaction, more so than intentional lying.
Bari: Some unsolicited advice from someone who became a journalist in the wake of Watergate and who has seen firsthand the demise of journalism since then: Bring a diverse group into the newsroom. By diverse, I don’t just mean people with a different skin tone, but people who are diverse in their thinking and interests. Much of what caused the low state of journalism is that newsrooms began hiring only people just like them, with the same thoughts, interests and backgrounds, which simply makes them a club or an activist group instead of journalists.
So my advice would be to hire people from a wide range of ages (interests and priorities do change with age), different backgrounds (at least one person from a rural area and someone from middle America, which thinks differently than the coastal megalopolises), varying religious affiliations (I think you’ve got the Jewish angle covered) and opposing political beliefs (yes, hire that unicorn journalist who supports Trump, or at least has conservative views – many of your readers, judging from comments, are politically conservative).
With that diversity, I think you’ll attain that old-school approach of reporting that will engender the trust you seek. I have high hopes for your success.
TFP needs at least one genuine Trump supporter on staff.
But at the end of the day, they're just as hateful and bigoted towards right wingers as their more extremist counterparts. They just don't lie as much.
But who would the Trump supporter/conservative writer have lunch with?
Agree on having a Trump supporter, though I have to say I personally LOVE to hate the 10-20% extremists on the far right and far left. They have co-opted the legacy parties and made them largely impervious to public opinion.
We do much better when these groups are sent to the corners with dunce caps. And we're doing very poorly with them running the show.
You would think that after TFP broke the story on NPR that diversity of thought would be top of mind for Bari. Let's hope she'll take some steps to move in that direction. Giving Oliver Wiseman more and more control of what is published is pretty much the opposite.
Oliver Wiseman is an integral part of the plan for the future of TFP:
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/16/free-press-raise-bari-weiss
That is a very dangerous move for The Free Press. Investors are in a position to make demands. Investors are often very savvy legally and have good attorneys who can take you over, or hollow your firm out. The Free Press would be quite a prize for the media moguls to acquire.
But TFP is currently losing money. They can’t continue to exist with their current subscription model, much less grow. From what I read in that Axios article, Bari has big plans, and they won’t be achieved if TFP remains a subscription model Substack venture.
It is losing money because it can lose money. I hope it works out. Newspapers historically grew organically over time. Like Microsoft did. Or IBM.
Newspapers? You mean like the NYT and the WSJ? Where I see pop-up ads every single day even though I pay them money to subscribe? “Historically” is the operative word here, ie, growing organically over time is now a part of history and doesn’t happen anymore. And TFP “can lose money”? Nobody can lose money and stay in business. Nobody can lose money for very long and grow.
There’s a chart that shows the college curriculum whose most students regret taking is …..journalism followed by social work.
Bari needs to hire reporters. Journalism is for navel gazing and middle schoolers in English class
Or we could start using the word correctly. 90% of the people in journalism are not, in fact, journalists. They are activists and propagandists.
I find the main problem with "journalists" is that they really don't know much of anything about anything other than maybe grammar. And yet they think that they should be the voice that explains everything good and bad about everything except grammar.
Perhaps it was better back in the days of strong newspapers with really sharp editors. A sharp editor with real business experience can go a long way to rejecting half-baked articles based upon sources with no qualifications or with obvious incentives. And the shame of it is that with search engines readily available today, it is quite easy to check "facts" in just a few minutes. But the FP seems to lack any editors at all, nor any real skill set other than to repeat what others have written or said and attempt to throw in some bit of cleverness.
Today's "journalists" do not, as a general rule, know much about grammar.
Yeah, tried to throw them a bone, but I had that feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was off in the ditch.
I think even the grammer angle is being lost. It is being changed to facilitate ease of digital and global communication. My personal pet peeve is conflating bias and prejudice.
I agree about those long gone sharp newspaper editors. They were responsible for long gone journalistic standards.
What is even worse is that they mostly spend their time repeating others while ignoring some pretty obvious huge issues. Woodward and Bernstein made their careers off of one investigative report on Watergate. You would think that modern day journalists would be chomping at the bit to investigate all of the nonsense in politics and the federal govt. Instead, they just repeat what the govt and the political parties tell them. When is the last time you heard a reporter mention the national debt?
They seem very timid(?) nonconfrontational(?). Unless discussing the presumed Republican nominee or his supporters. You are right about the national debt reportage. Either they cannot connect the dots or are unwilling to acknowledge that spending must be slowed.
There should be an article on the National Debt --- by Stephanie Kelton.
All money you use is debt somewhere else. Money is brought into the world by creating an equal debt.
When you pay down the National Debt you destroy money that is being used by people like yourself.
The correct discussion about deficits is "WTAF are you spending that money on?!" War returns less than it costs. Most other things return multiples of their cost. You know, things like infrastructure, or good schools, or baseline medical care. The second highest return was Apollo. The highest return was the interstate freeway system.
Ah, MMT. The ridiculous notion that a govt can spend as much as it wants without consequences.
This from the NYT in Feb. 2022, based upon Kelton's materials: "M.M.T. theorists argue that society should feel capable of spending to achieve its goals to the extent that there are resources available to fulfill them. Deficit spending need not be constrained to recessions, even theoretically. Want to build a road? No problem, so long as you have asphalt and construction workers. Want to feed children free lunches? Also not a problem, so long as you have the food and the cafeteria workers."
But isn't the first major problem with this "theory" that someone has to determine if there are sufficient resources available? How exactly can anyone determine that for global commodities? And how can someone predict supply and demand even locally given that to know that would require intimate knowledge of not only govt projects but also the private sector? What evidence can anyone point to that the US federal govt has these skill sets? Obama took over student loan administration in 2010 so that he could use the billions in profit to fund the ACA. And the profit disappeared almost overnight once the feds got involved.
I don't know of even one govt project locally (always with fed funding) that is not far overbudget, far short of the promises at approval, and years late. So, the idea that the federal govt can accurately determine what resources are available for a new project at the moment the project would start in the future is pure nonsense.
But why would the federal govt even care about that assessment if it had no impact at all on those who were involved? Answer: They prove all the time that they couldn't care less. All projects are far overbudget. All are way late. All are far less than promised. Nobody gets fired. They just ask for more printed money to get it completed.
And what is the impact on the private sector when the federal govt spends and spends like that, deficit or not? The funded projects compete directly with the private sector for resources. Federal project needs more money or resources? Not a problem. Just print more money and outbid the private sector in the free market. But in the private sector, costs go up as they compete for those resources and in the end that means prices go up. Voila! Inflation, caused by the federal govt spending. Further, govt employees are protected from the inflation because they can just print more money to get paid more. But in the private sector, the businesses either cut labor (loss of jobs) or raise prices. Or even worse, they go out of business because they can't compete with foreign competition, or their customers can't afford the new higher prices.
IMHO, MMT is the path to runaway inflation and / or a massive depression as the real businesses in the private sector fail in the global marketplace or can't effectively compete with their own govt for resources. Remember Biden and his 87,000 new IRS employees? Regardless of how they will get paid with borrowed money, that is 87,000 people who will be recruited from the private sector. Think about what that is going to do to wage inflation and private businesses trying to compete.
And at least someone without a college degree (much less a degree from an elite school, which seems to be the current standard at TFP).
A college degree in what? Humanities these days is a Marxist-ish education in oppression politics. Worthless. But physics, chemistry, biology, and other hard sciences are good.
Word.
Not going to happen on this site Gary.
I think the TFPs problem is elitism. Bari Weiss just wants to rule the elites. It seems to me that every writer and guest writer embraces elitism. I would screen for someone who does not although I admit it is not easy. Rob Henderson maybe.
TFP really needs a genuine pro-life voice. I like a lot of what they are doing, but I am tired of all the constant cheerleading for abortion. Many people have thoughtful arguments as to why it is the taking of innocent life. It would be nice to get their perspective.
Great comment. I have the feeling most TFP reporters and guest essayists are under 50 (except perhaps Douglas Murray?). Diversity is more than just race, it includes diversity of age. And as you said, region.
Never underestimate the value of a plummy British accent. But Bari, we don't hear any accents. You have turned over your paper to the plummy accent Brit guy.
I second Kauffman's recommendation. Among other things you need few SCIENTISTS to counter the de rigeur inability of journalists to separate twaddle from TERF, twerk, and sense.
The Gaither's had an interesting way to decide whether to hire someone. After the last interview, they would take the candidate to dinner. If the candidate treated the wait staff poorly, they didn't get hired.
The Free Press could do something like this. After the last interview, take the candidate to dinner. If during dinner conversation they don't disagree with you at least once, don't hire them.
Gary, “yes, hire that unicorn journalist who supports Trump, or at least has conservative views”
Seriously?!
The Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project (aka The Free Press) thrives on writing stories about failed Democratic policies across the nation... which they likely supported in the first place.
Bari Weiss, et al, have obviously never encountered the concept of unintended consequences or Chesterton's Fence in their many years of "smart and nuanced" discourses about "what is to be done?" regarding whatever ails society... it never dawns on them that they have been playing Leninist politics for most of their adult lives...
Trust is earned. I for one would like to see an article on why ALL of the cases against Trump are either examples of unequal application of the law, or patently absurd, as is the case with the current trial in New York. Nobody familiar with the law can justify the shredding and defecating on the legal traditions of a thousand years.
I will trust you more when it is not obvious that you all plan to vote for the corrupt corpse, his failings, dishonesty, and patent backing by authoritarians notwithstanding.
Both Tucker Carlson and Sharyll Atkisson--who along with John Stossel are the only journalists I currently trust--are saying they have been told, and have evidence supporting the claim, that nearly all of our Congressional representatives are being controlled like puppets on strings by our intelligence agencies, who are not only operating illegally in this country, but doing so for all intents and purposes openly.
We have large problems, and while I agree we need exceptions in abortion laws, the survival of democracy in our nation--if indeed it still exists--is a bigger issue even than mothers dying of pregnancy complications. God knows the jabs killed a thousand people for every mother endangered in any way by such problems.
We are at a crossroad. One way leads to a positive future, and the other to complete control of every aspect of our lives by the very sorts of people the Democrats used to say they opposed.
"For a while now, you’ve been getting emails from my colleague Olly Wiseman. He’ll be helming The Front Page with his characteristic British wit and wisdom (I just hear his accent). "
For the four thousandth time, I'll just say that Bari and company need to find some writers that actually represents the 50% of this country that are turned off by the soy latte coastal elite laptop class (and yes, that includes our British brother Olly). Many of the subscribers, myself included, that are part of that class, have been giving her & her team the benefit of the doubt from the 'Common Sense' days, and they've grown and are quite successful. I'm happy for them and as a proud founding subscriber, I have been an eager reader and supporter. But I'm finding my patience is wearing thin. Olly, while I'm sure is a fine chap, has no clue what rural North Carolinians or Louisianians' feel about different subjects and news stories and there doesn't really seem be much interest in bringing on contributors that could connect to those people & that demographic. Having a next door neighbor who has a 3rd cousin in Fordyce Arkansas that visits every 6 years, ain't gonna cut it.
So wake up Bari and company and get some writers from our neck of the woods, or that growing subscription base we're all happy to see and help fund, is probably going to slow up a bit.
“Olly” in print looks like “Oily”, at a quick glance.
Trust your eyes…
All of this just cements for me that I come here for you guys, not The Free Press, necessarily. TFP is a great gathering place for fun, interesting people.
Yip the comments are the life blood of this site. Without us it would have folded months ago!
Skinny, is it true that all people who live in Austin are required to have a hammer and sickle tattooed on their shoulders?
Asking for a friend.
I had hope until the Soros DA was re-elected. BTW he dismissed all.of the pro-Arabs we now refer to as Palestinians cases. Every. Single.One.
Edited to acknowledge my mistake. These were misdemeanor charges so they were dismissed by the County Attorney not the District Attorney. Apologies for spreading misinformation.
Yip it’s prerequisite😂
No. It is not required.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sybrZXnWx60
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I chuckled at your post. I find it very perceptive and spot on.
I too am like you. I come here to read TFP articles and the posts. Most of the posts are from well informed educate people and for the most part very civil. The posts more than the articles keep me on my toes and is wealth if information and opposing views.
Me Too.
It would be worthwhile for TFP to take a page from Uri Berliner (the NPR whistleblower) who sought out voter registration for NPR's D.C. newsroom. He found that all 87 journalists were registered Democrats. Would help to engender trust if TFP stated their commitment to a 50/50 Republican / Democrat split among their staff.
Or better yet, 100% “haven’t seen many Ds or Rs worth supporting in a while.”
There are very few inspiring politicians. I think the nature of the job precludes it.
Actually, we Unpopular Kids do appear -- as zoo animals at various loci visited by Mr Ben K.
Yip Casey spot on think the Zoo animals have had enough, we need to revolt.
Do you not think that your complaint is the whole point? Show all those in flyover country the error of their thinking and ways. We can all be alike. Sadly the internet is accomplishing that anyway. We have almost lost all of which makes us unique. Worldwide.
Haha! Hardly.
Bari and TFP are in talks to raise investment capital right now. Once she gets the amount she’s seeking (a closely guarded secret), she won’t need you anymore. Plus, out of the 630,000 subscribers to TFP, there are only 77,000 who pay. Investors are looking at how many eyeballs they will reach. It’s the total 630,000 that matters to them, not the 77,000.
The fact that you are willing to pay money to hang out in the comments with a few like minded people who apparently don’t actually like what Bari is selling means that you have been funding a POV that you essentially disagree with and is only getting worse, not better (see: Olly is now officially in charge of a daily newsletter with all the items you dislike the most, including himself). Here’s the game plan:
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/16/free-press-raise-bari-weiss
You're reading the tea leaves wrong. I don't dislike Olly or Bari. I have a great deal of admiration of them and what they are doing. I'll continue to support TFP and the fact that they are raising capital to grow the business is a good thing. I think its wrong to assume that they won't need a paying subscriber base to flourish. I think that's exactly what they need. Otherwise, they just become WaPo or NYT publishing half baked, unvetted clickbait stories and Bari and her peeps know that. Its ok that they write stuff that I'm critical of. In fact that's quite healthy IMO. They get a lot of stuff right on the regular, but I mostly make comments when I think their liberal stripes are bleeding through too strongly.
If we, the commenters/subscribers continue to push them in a more centrist direction, they hopefully will respond & begin to move that way (yes.....I do believe that TFP leadership and employees read the comments). There are other options like Lee Fang, Tucker, Glenn Greenwald, X, Public & Racket News that are competing for the same eyeballs and TFP knows it. I'll continue to be happy paying and raising the necessary hell when moved to do so.
I think they are pretty center and am eternally grateful that people who began liberal looked around and decided there were serious problems w/their cohort.
We need people who think for themselves and aren't just parroting their tribe.
We’ll see. IMHO, Bari, et al, are already in the middle. They are all center left and will probably remain there. Trust me, they aren’t competing with Tucker Carlson for anything. They don’t want any eyeballs that he’s getting. Enjoy your time in the comments.
Matt taibbi and Walter Kirn on America this week are terrific, as is Matt’s “racket” podcast. While I admire Greenwald’s intellect and integrity, his coverage of Israel/Gaza is so one note,and so one sided, while hosting as guests extremist people like George Galloway, Norman Finkelstein, Roger Waters, --that I doubt he is competing for the “same eyeballs” as Bari.
I have been paying $5/mo. for this site for several years, now (I understand it's now $8 or $10 (?) new subscribers). even if everyone was paying $5, that is close to $5M a year. IDK how much the substack entity takes off the top, but that's a pretty good budget for less than a dozen people. If the add pop up ads and all that nonsense, I'm out of here.
Yes, screw ads, charge me a few bucks more if it comes to that.
From the Axios article on TFP:
“By the numbers: The Free Press currently employs around 20 full-time employees and 10 contractors, Weiss said, roughly double the number of staff at its launch in late 2022.
In the coming weeks, the company plans to hire nearly a dozen more roles on both the business and editorial sides.
The firm is not yet profitable. Last year, it brought in roughly $5 million in revenue, mostly from subscriptions to its daily newsletter.
The Free Press currently has around 540,000 total email subscribers, 77,000 of which are paid, per Weiss. Most subscribers pay between $6.67 and $8 monthly to access The Free Press' full suite of content.”
Note that TFP had about 30 employees at the time the article was written and was in the process of hiring a dozen more, so they probably have more than 40 people on staff now. Note that they are NOT profitable and are actually losing money with the $5 million income. Hence the need to find institutional investors and raise a ton of capital to offset the losses because they can’t function, much less grow, on the current subscription model.
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/16/free-press-raise-bari-weiss
The Axios article was written when there were only 540,000 subscribers total and that number is now 630,000, however the number of paid subscribers seems not to have risen from the 77,000 mentioned in the article (although the monthly fee may have gone up to $10/mo, don’t know).
I guess I'm getting a "deal" at $5. But if they are raising money based on non-subscribers, then the investors will demand they milk the non-subscribers = advertising. If ,y ad-block software can defeat their advertising, then I don't care. Example is You Tube, which is unwatchable without ad block. If
But don’t they run in to the problem of the investors influencing the news they report on???
Thank God that somebody invented the adblocker! Though i don't mind paying more for ad-free content. Let Free Press show ads to free subscribers.
You are definitely getting a deal at $5/mo; I think I pay $8/mo. I don’t watch YouTube much. Occasionally I watch an Amanpour&co interview, and I subscribed to the GoodFellows from Stanford, but that’s about it. I don’t subscribe to YouTube per se. When a piece starts with an ad, I just watch that thing in the corner where after about 4 seconds you can “stop ad”, which I then do and watch the interview.
Exactly. Apparently Bari failed to notice that when Uri Berliner wrote his piece on lack of diversity of thought at NPR he could very well have been talking about The Free Press.
It will be TFPs undoing unless they're purposely trying to create a left-leaning echo chamber.
At the very least Bari needs to reign in that Olly character.
" I'll just say that Bari and company need to find some writers that actually represents the 50% of this country that are turned off by the soy latte coastal elite laptop class ."
Why? Don't you have Newsmax and Fox News?
Well the “why” is they say they don’t want to be like Fox, Newsmax, MSNBC, or CNN to name a few. They say they want to cover news. That means covering all the points of view. I respect TFP, but there are topics they seem to have a bias on.
Since Oct 7, they have been like AIPAC News.
And what topics are those?
Israel, Palestinians, war, best use of our treasure, for just a few
Actually, those are keywords.
What are the biases of TFP regarding those?
Is Bari losing her audience of "disaffected former liberals pushed too far by the excesses of the left?"
Wit and wisdom are entertaining and precious regardless of the accent in which they're delivered. Go, Olly!
There is more "Wit and wisdom" in my left nut. Oily must go!
Totally and completely agree, Evans! I don’t believe our comments make it to Bari, anymore. Seems the intern (is it Julie ??) may be the one looking over our post?
I, too, have asked Bari, or whomever makes the decisions, to PLEASE bring in a contributor who will be “a trusted voice of reason” like she was with Common Sense.
Don’t allow TFP to lose what it started as!
Please keep TFP “balanced” and appealing to the Middle, as it was in the beginning! Bari was the very reason I became a supporter, and I still feel the same loyalty toward her! More so since 10/7 and listening to her speak on numerous platforms. SHE is an amazing person & I have great respect for her as a journalist!
But, apparently Bari is a huge fan of Oliver Weisman (his accent), so announcing to us his very own Front Page here at TFP was a huge disappointment to me. I’d hoped for someone Independent of Left & Right, or at least unbiased!
Unfortunately, this isn’t good news for many of us. If Weisman were an honest journalist/reporter, he’d refrain from his Left Wing biased comments. Notice how HE always gets his digs in, but I suppose that’s just “WINGNUT” Olly!
So I take it you’re not going to try Suzy’s Lillet Blanc on the rocks while you cook (which would likely include cous cous, kale, and free
Trade something-or-other)? It’s what all the cool California kids sip.
May I suggest you subscribe to Matt Taibbe's "Racket News" or Michael Shellenberger's "Public." The Free Press cannot be all things for everybody. So far, since its launch, I think they've done admirable work.
Besides, do you really want to be one of those who hear only what they wan to hear?
I just want one succinct news digest to read over coffee before once more into the breach of the day. I want a reason to spend less time on a screen trawling for news. Mainly journalist's journalists with a smattering of witty and charming writers. PLEASE!
I know! It seems like everyone (NYT, WSJ etc.) has one , so Bari & co. are jumping into it. I love TFP, but I'm seeing too much bias. We'll see how it plays out!
I’d suggest 1440
1440 is a left leaning joke.
Really? I don't get that vibe.
Nor do I! I know they link to sources considered “left” but I consider them my daily news. TFP I consider my news magazine.
There's a news aggregator called AllSides that pulls together stories from different sources and ranks the sources as left, center, or right. Although not necessarily a succinct news digest, it is a quick way to see a variety of stories and how outlets across the spectrum are covering them.
https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news
Yeah, me too. I receive a daily digest from Reason magazine, but it arrives at about 7 p.m.
They've done STELLAR work, the "Honestly" podcast is one of the best out there.
That's why I stay here!
Not sure what's different about this email? Different name? Same disinterest in what is truly a danger to our democracy: this administration and the cabal that runs it. Totally over listening to the "shiny object" of abortion, illegal means zero, words matter.
Marketing. Branding.
To her credit, Bari seems to have genuinely felt something deeply and dreadfully wrong at the NYT, but she is just closer to sanity than she was. She is more honest than the NYT (and the rest of the captive media) are, but not 100% in yet on reporting all the news worth reporting, consistently and without withholding. I don't think she has opened her mind enough yet to simply ask open ended questions and to report fully where they lead, even if it is someplace she really doesn't like. Maybe she will get there. Maybe she needs to interview Sharyl Attkisson and see how that vibe feels to her. People do change, sometimes.
I personally don't like believing that the CIA and FBI are actively supporting political authoritarianism in this country, but the evidence seems to support it. I would dearly love to be proven wrong. Hopefully I am. The truth is likely more complex . Most of human life includes factions, and I would assume they exist in those places too. Who is winning? Well, I guess we will know before too long. Of course, the victory of one of the factions will never be reported. The non-reporting, though, DOES constitute reporting, for those with the wits to look, and of course not see.
The usual liberal thinking of focusing only on the symptoms and not the problem. Sharyl Attkisson, John Solomon, Glenn Beck. All have reported on the more serious and insidious workings of this administration and its deviousness. Trump isn't the problem.
Yet just yesterday I got into a “friendly” discussion with a couple friends about him. They think he’s an evil man, a Putin wannabe, and that if he’s elected, we will be in WWIII! I’m very concerned about WWIII if this administration continues for another four years!! I’d love for someone here who truly believes this, to let me know what I’m missing. No wars under Trump, yet the world is very unstable since Biden came into office. And where has Trump ever shown his love for Russia and Putin? Seriously want to know to find out if I’m not thinking correctly.
PS…I follow Tucker and Sharyl and, and I love Glen Greenwald and Matt Taibbi.
What policies did Trump push that undermined our collective success? I ask my liberal friends this question and never get an answer.
We're a lot closer to WWIII under the current regime than we were during Trump's term. Do your friends not remember what it was like to live in peace and have cheap gas? Oh but mean tweets, he's terrible.
Agreed!
Linda-- I was chatting w/ a (very BLUE) neighbor yesterday, who was delighted to report that she had a great political chat w/ her cousin, a REPUBLICAN (of all things!!). He really thinks Trump is and EVIL man, but sees that his policies are the only way to fix our country. The only way she could accept her cousin was the fact that he sees Trump as evil, so they can at least be on the same team , even if they are taking different actions based on that fact. God forbid anyone say " I think Trump is smart" or "I think Trump has this country's best interest at heart"!
I have long been puzzled by the Trump animosity. It struck me like a thunderbolt that it is because he is not nice. And he isn't. But that does not mean he is not good. And the irony of all the Trump hate and the depths to which those who will embrace plunge because HE is not nice. I think he gives them the much desired excuse to reveal their true natures.
'And where has Trump ever shown his love for Russia and Putin?'
Helsinki, 2018?
I am amazed at how thorough the Trump virus has affected everyone: more than COVID. E.g., a very knowledgeable and politically savvy friend yesterday proclaimed that “If re-elected, Trump won’t leave the White House alive”(!). He explained, no, not an a$$a$&ination. He believes that Trump will refuse to leave, invoking dictatorial powers, etc… . End of Democracy©️ theory.
This man is a very rational being. He’s been working in Republican politics for 50+ years, helped get Karl Rove elected as College Republican president. But, the Trump virus has been absorbed so completely that the craziest theories are accepted as Gospel. When I suggested that he was being hyperbolic, he bristled. This man never bristles; he’s the calmest person I’ve ever known in the political realm.
But, he (still; I fled 3 years ago) lives in metropolitan DC. There is no pushback at all to even the most outlandish Trump conspiracies.
https://www.newsweek.com/heres-all-times-trump-has-praised-putin-708859
Haters love to read so much into his statements! I know the writer was attempting to do a chronological piece on all of Trump’s quotes, but it lost credibility at the start when the writer talked about Trump making comments about Putin when the Miss Universe pageant was in Russia ! He was a celebrity then, and I’m sure everyone laughed at the time! Even Joe and Mika probably loved him during those years!
Unrelated to this piece, but yet another example of twisting his words, Trump said there were “good and bad people on both sides” and the media and haters went ballistic. Biden says he feels for the Israeli students on campus, yet he also wants people to understand what’s happening in Gaza and nothing from the media. It’s ok if Biden says it…not ok when Trump says it. Got it.
If only the haters could come up with policies they hate. Here's the classic when comparing immigration to the two presidents/candidates, like I heard yesterday…”we’ve always had immigration problems” (refusing to acknowledge the most ever illegals under Biden).
Yes, I read the whole list in the article. At least I get it now…thanks!
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Yes, you are thinking clearly and correctly. And your friends are not. It really is that simple. Don't let them gaslight you.
Comparing politicians resembles comparing dog turds on the sidewalk. Some are worse than others but if you are expecting to be inspired you are going to be disappointed.
It does help I find to play music (maybe beautiful classical) while reading. Because most stories are either aggravating or simply tragic.
The fact that we have Biden and Trump touted as our Presidential choices is the problem. Trump promised to free Julian Assange but instead commuted the sentence of junk bond fiend and financier Michael Milken. Trump's staff was made up of the revolving door operatives that inhabit all our administrations. Biden is what he is. It is becoming more and more obvious that what really matters is who WE are and what WE are willing to do to preserve OUR Republic.
You are correct Madam. Our popular national conversation talks around the grift, gives the grifters a pass and plays "wack-a-mole" with the mal perps and shills who pop up and smell up American reality. Opinion says that the cause of our problem is the criminal 1% of the 1% of the worlds financial elite. They appear in the public sector when it is profitable do their mischief and disappear back into the private sector at will. Their nasty little psychopathic fingers are in everybody's pockets. They destroy and loot economies at will. D.C.? Crickets!!
Why in the bright future they proclaim is it necessary to destroy and silence the free peoples of the world?
“more honest than the NYT”
Talk about a low bar.
The snarky silliness from Wiseman has more than a slight taste of the Gray Lady.
And the snarky silliness of Nellie Bowles is good as anything from a 1960s West Hollywood Gay bar.
I'm all for the snarky silliness of all three (hello Suzie!) but yes - please recruit some journalist's journalists for the front page.
I think the ALPHABET's believe what is goof for them and gives them more power is good for America. A very dangerous mindset for servants of the state.
This comment is spot on. They have seen "the intelligence" but the citizenry cannot be trusted with that knowledge. It is modern day Star Chamber.
If you actually, truly trust Tucker Carlson, the man who never runs out of cockeyed conspiracies, then that tells me everything I need to know.
I trust Carlson to show me a viewpoint that I might not have considered. Then trust myself to determine what I think of that viewpoint. Isn’t that the way it should be?
Yes.
Maybe it does. But I want to point out that English is filled with gaps that can be filled in varying ways. In this case your last sentence might be completed ". . .everything I need to know to form a wrong conclusion that squares with my wrong assumptions formed on the basis of intentionally wrong data."
Tower 7 was brought down by explosives, period. If you don't know this, you have not studied it. There is no ambiguity. There is consensus and ignorance. Those are the two possibilities. The likelihood is that you have not even heard of Tower 7, much less watched its collapse and thought about it.
UFO"s are real, at least according to highly credible people like Edgar Mitchell (test pilot, Apollo Astronaut and Rocket Scientists with a Ph.D from MIT), Phillip Corso, the Department of Defense, and in the past year or so David Grusch and two Navy fighter pilots, who testified in front of Congress.
I will be happy to work with you to help explain any complex topic about which you find yourself confused, to the extent good conclusions are possible with reliable data.
Reality has no duty to be as dull as you imagine. And none of us have any duty to only see what we are told to see.
Tucker was recently interviewed by Joe Rogan, and he said that aliens from outer space have been living underground on Earth for about 4,000 years. Gotta love his investigative journalism.
He didn't prove that with any obvious facts. It was just his belief. Can you prove that his beliefs are wrong?
This is what Tucker probably watches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihk7RAmf-W8
This is what I think of that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_wKHixTXOg
I trust that Tucker is being honest, just as I think TFP is honest. That is not the same as agreeing with everything they say.
You're right. People should turn to neutral academic researchers before pundits when adjudicating claims such as those made about WTC-7: https://ine.uaf.edu/projects/wtc7/
All he did was validate in greater detail what was obvious the moment WTC7 came down. Still, it put the final nail in the coffin of alternative explanations, and was this worth the time and money spent.
At most it debunks a nonsense. The way is not, however, made open to substitute another nonsense. Samewise the testimony of the qualified allows UFOs are real phenomena; it does not allow barking explanations.
"I personally don't like believing that the CIA and FBI are actively supporting political authoritarianism in this country, but the evidence seems to support it."
-What evidence is that?
Among other things, that Hillary was exonerated of a series of serious felonies before the “investigation” even started, and the very damning testimony of Mike Benz, among others.
What were the felonies?
This Mike Benz? https://www.aol.com/michael-benz-rising-voice-conservative-211714168.html
Handling Classified documents in a flagrantly irresponsible manner. Any soldier would have gone to Leavenworth for 20 years for a small fraction of what she did. And the mere existence of the server—which was plainly intended to circumvent inspection and compliance with the Federal Records Act, which itself implies illegal activity—was likely a felony itself. Add to this the destruction of EVERYTHING—the server, the phones, and if course the email—after they were subpoenaed and the farce of prosecuting Trump for NOTHING and not prosecuting her for anything, becomes very obvious.
And the Mike Benz interview is here: https://tuckercarlson.com/uncensored-the-national-security-state-the-inversion-of-democracy/
Tell me what part doesnt feel right to you.
Auto-immune disease. You had a couple of decades of no actual enemy of any consequence. I'm not surprised: when it is all hunky-dory, that is when you have to watch for neuroses.
The Uri Berliner piece hit the target and generated articles and response across both electronic and print media. TFP does deliver. But I agree with you about the general focus of reports both here and on other platforms across Substack. We need deep dive investigative reporting and profiles on those dismantling our Republic. We need a new focus and a new conversation. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's betrayal of "we the people" on the FISA vote would be a good place to start. Now you see it now you don't crisis to crisis reporting and knee-jerk shock without followup doesn't help us. Personally I'd like reports to address the disease not the symptoms. That said, the hard work of building and holding a newspaper together should be applauded. I have no problem with today's format change or Mr. Wiseman. News reporting is evolving. What isn't is "we the people."
The pictures, mostly.
Same thing just dressed in a new outfit.
Here’s an example: We’ve been hearing for a long theme that Marjory Taylor Greene is an antisemite because she made some crazy comment about “Jewish space lasers” although it wasn’t clear where or if she actually said that. Now we read TFP endorsing this narrative, but find out maybe it was exaggerated to the point of just more media propaganda narrative as TFP writes:
“Just think about what happened when, in 2021, Media Matters combed through Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Facebook page and discovered a 2018 post that mentioned, “there are all these people who have said they saw what looked like lasers or blue beams of light causing the fires,” and speculated the California wildfires that year may have something to do with “Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm.” Newspapers, cable news, and late-night comedians pounced. In an instant, Greene became the Jewish space laser lunatic. And rightly so!”
So relaying that some people saw what appeared to be blue lasers near the origins of some wildfires becomes a “space laser” even though there is nothing in Greene’s comment regarding space. An alternative reading that is more likely is that some witnesses may have seen an arsonist using something bright that they speculated might be a laser to set wildfires. Which may be an accurate observation, since the FAA has reported for years that people are commonly pointing laser pointers at aircraft and temporarily blinding pilots. And somehow referencing the Rothschilds makes that comment “antisemitic”. By that criteria maybe Bari is implying that Matt Taibbi is also antisemitic due to his reporting on the 2008 global financial crisis and focusing on the role of Goldman Sachs.
If TFP really wants to claim a fair minded, centrist high ground, it might help to lay off the half-truth propaganda it decries by other media outlets.
M.T. Greene is, as far as I can tell, is the only serious congressional voice calling out the Mike Johnson betrayal of the Republic with his FISA vote. Like yourself I'm taken aback by "gotcha" broad brush deception and character assassination without evidence. It muddies the water, uses knee-jerk emotionality and it serves the psyop. If the criminal surveillance industry continues its ascent self-preservation may demand that "we the people" abandon the internet altogether. Subscription journalism may provide an answer. Depth reporting delivered by the U.S. mail on a flash drive or other means might serve us well. Remember letter writing. Or a subscription service catalogue providing choice without the attached "snoop". Reality: The internet, which should have provided "we the people" a healthy voice and forum to create the bright future we deserve has been captured and subverted by criminal financiers and looters. It's not something else. Indeed WE are hip deep and dependent on some aspects of electronic communication but WE still have choices.
I've heard claims, and seen videos, of blue rays coming out of the sky and setting Maui on fire. In an electronic landscape where "everything means everything and nothing means anything" what do we believe? Thanks to the leviathan electronic canard surrounding us, not our eyes and ears.
I think of neither antisemitism or the race card until someone lays them on the table. In all topics, and our Constitution allows this, the conversation needs to be across the board human not divisibly stratified and emotionally manipulated. WWII fascism targeted Jews and exploited hatred on a mass scale. Isn't the act without the facts "micro" hatred that defines cancel culture and scours the internet for victims the same disease? The fascism of WWII also murdered, along with the six million Jews, another six million Christians and people of other ethnicity. My take away from Vietnam was the horror of average people trapped inside the violence of opposing ideological regimes. That seems to be the landscape being planned for "we the people."---Just saying.
AMEN Art!!!
In the same vein you have Biden at the WH press dinner talking about Trump being a "dictator from day one" and "bloodbath" both completely out of context.
MTG-gets ‘Palin-ized’ everyday.Both women very strong. Stood up for their beliefs and constituents.Incessantly ridiculed.
Yes, Art, you’re right!
Perhaps a more accurate characterization of MTG’s laser speculations would be plain old
fashioned ignorance. She said as much in her own defense on Don Jr’s podcast. She was just tossing around lots of names of those who could be responsible for such lasers and somehow the Rothschilds were among them. I don’t understand why this is a defense really. A parallel might be pro Palestinian students going so far as to endorse Hamas. Much of this is ignorance too. One thing that baffles me about the “far right” is their embrace of ignorance, almost as if its a path to some kind of untainted truth. While I kind of get the immediate raw appeal…sort of like listening and laughing at the wisdom of toddlers, I don’t see why anyone would seriously want to elect these folks and trust them to do the research needed to make good decision. I can only guess that there’s so much mistrust and hatred of people who know things that the impulse is to go in the other direction and embrace profound ignorance. But isn’t there a middle ground? Or some other better ground?
God Finbar I wish you were one of the writers on this site. It’s such a pleasure to read your posts.
Thanks!!
My problem is that my opinions are so varied and ideosyncratic that I have written something somewhere that would annoy pretty much everyone.
Still, I would not say no!!!
So varied and idiosyncratic I'm satisfied you are not a bot! :-) I second Skinny; even with the annoyance.
Please don’t stop!
Feature, not bug.
I second the motion. Finbar's posts are a pleasure to read.
Finbar: keep writing varied and idiosyncratic posts and let the chips fall where they may!
Speaking of the jabs, last night I saw a (previously) very healthy 65 yo retired physician who can finally play pickleball after his bout of Guillain-Barré syndrome he came down with in OCTOBER! He got it, coincidentally no doubt, after receiving a Covid booster. He was in the hospital for a week, they wanted to keep him in for a month but he said no I will recuperate at home. He said there were 3 other men in the hospital with the same condition. This is not a big metropolis where this happened. Nothing to see here.......
The UK is allowing lawsuits to continue against Astra Zeneca for "very rare" side effects related to its Covid vaccine. Here in the US those alleging injuries are denied a day in court.
Vaccines are the leading cause of coincidence.
If you'll only trust someone who is as blindly partisan as yourself, then the Free Press isn't for you. I'm glad TFP doesn't appeal to you, because then it'd be indistinguishable from any other partisan press. Sure they have a point of view on a few topics (Israel for one) but for the most part you won't hear a single monotone viewpoint projected here. That's good. That's the point!
Perhaps when you disagree with reasonable and informed people it's not them that's missing something? Not trying to insult you, it sounds like you've been wrapped up in internet stuff that will only make you angry and close-minded, I hope you can break free and maybe identify why people disagree with you and check if it's a values difference or an information difference that keeps your opinions apart.
Its unquestionably mostly information difference, which is my precise quibble.
Most Democrats are simply not exposed to most of the information found on “conservative” sites, which for this reason I personally view as the sites of marginalized moderates.
To be to the right of hallucinatory lunatics does not in any respect make anyone “right wing”, which of course is a derogatory term and as the saying goes, a dog whistle for the profoundly lazy rhetorical trick of calling reasonable people making reasonable but unwanted arguments Nazis.
I know this is asking a lot but if you get the time:DEBT SLAVERY AND THE CABON CREDIT COUP https://youtu.be/_trBBunj2WI?si=o52xJcS0e6aTPCOn I'm interested in your take on the subject.
Throughout this I kept thinking ESG. Carbon credits, I think, are a total slight of hand. The public private partnership effort is a means to push energy policies that tighten the control of the powerful over how regular citizens live their lives. The tentacles of the WEF, WHO and NGOs are far reaching.
There is a group of Bitcoin oriented young people who seem to be eyes front on the machinations of criminal finance that no one else discusses. And it seems to be the core issue behind the chaos the Republic is suffering. I discovered Witney Webb by accident while visiting family over the Christmas holiday. They seem to be young people who make sense though I'm still looking to vet their opinions. (Stay strong!!)
Hmmm. The government seems to be investigating a Central Bank Digital Currency. If that happens and we have a cashless society, the government would know everything about everyone. They would have access to your finances. They are The Bank. I don't like that idea.
--should be CARBON--I'm butterfingers today.
I figure most people are correct about some issues, wrong about others. So my litmus test—if I'm not reading well-written stories and perspectives that I don't disagree with sometimes, then I'm probably getting spin. And I'm not growing as a free thinker. That for me is the crossroad—do we think freely or divide up into teams?
'Shredding and defecating on legal traditions'? Are you serious? Well Unsaint, we have (apparently) a Supreme Court who will give a President (possibly Trump again) who can, if it's an act deemed official, have immunity for pretty much whatever the hell he wants to do. Doesn't that sound like fun? Are you good with that? (And you're worried about congressional representatives controlled by intelligence agencies.)
Wouldn't that have been the news of the week? Talk about a crossroad. Do we go back to 1775 and King George? Are we electing monarchs now? But you are right about one thing, the survival of democracy in this nation..
I'll end there.
Agreed
AMEN, Brother!!! 💯 🎯 🎯🎯
are you a complete idiot!!!! Have you ever read the BIBLE or better yet studied it.
I have read most of the Bible. I went to Sunday School most Sundays when I was a kid. I recently reread Revelations, which I would encourage everyone to do. In my view if it is relevant to our current time it is only because the people trying to bring about the end of the world are mining it for ideas. The original was plainly just meant to scare the shit out of some early Churches to keep them on that days version of the straight and narrow.
And I may be at times a complete idiot. But I will say I am not the sort of idiot who insults people without telling them why.
My first thought was "fake account".
Not a bad guess. As a general rule, when somebody on the internet is saying something no one would say, it is a left winger pretending to be a conservative, based on their cartoonish ideas of what "those people" think. Since they lack both wit and understanding, they generally do a poor job of it.
and far too many exclamation marks
Ah, there was only one Revelation, but I think we can all agree it was a doozy!
Non-sequitur.
This new format should be titled "Blind Spot". How about the green energy fiasco? The selling out of our SPR. Biden's new tax proposals. Our shrinking economy. Who's funding BLM 2.0. Fentanyl deaths. Illegal immigration. Continued pushing of the covid shot. Student loan cancelations. The overall failure of our education system. So much more to be concerned about than Kristi Noem or the absurd press correspondence dinner.
Jim Biden’s business dealings with the Qataris, as reported in Politico, and their possible impact on WH policy in the ME——not covered either.
So much that is being ignored by TFP. Joe Biden has been accused of bribery as VP.
All of these topics are 100% more worth than a governors dog. Guess that’s what happens in a free press world … attacks on potential VPs. How about a story … any story on the day to day activity of our current VP.
She is a DEI hire as is KJP. Embarrassing for all intelligent women. Sad that the first female VP is incompetent.
On the other hand, I for one want to know if a potential future vice president is a dog murderer.
A dog behavior specialist? I respect your take and opinion on the subject but not everyone views animals in the same way.
That may be so, but more voters these days view pets the way I do, that's just a fact. Pets are like family. They are not just for the service of their owners and are not disposable. That's the political reality you're dealing with, even if you set aside the humane issues.
She was a responsible pet owner. The dog had murdered a neighbor's chickens. If the quote about hating it is correct that is disturbing. But so much is taken out of context that I am not even interested enough to investigate.
Killing poultry is different from attacking a child. She could have compensated the chicken owners and tried to find another home for the dog, somewhere that it didn't have access to livestock. Or tried to hire the services of a dog trainer who specializes in behavioral issues and aggression. The dog did something that its natural instincts told it to do. This was an extreme on-the-spot solution, and if I may say, it looks redneck as hell, and if there's anything Trump and the GOP don't need, it's yet more fodder for the liberal media who already brand his supporters as a bunch of rednecks. It actually reinforces the stereotype. Why give them ammunition? Noem is finished and I won't miss her.
I think she acted as a responsible owner of an animal that killed her neighbor's poultry and turned on her. But I like rednecks. Strong, practical, no nonsense folks.
I generally don't have a problem with rednecks as long as they're not hurting animals, but most of the voting public sees them as backwards and crude and something out of Deliverance, whether fairly or unfairly. The last thing Trump's campaign needs is a hurricane of redneck jokes leading up to the election. Most Americans are animal lovers and don't live on farms.
And if you actually read the story, dog have been fighting people including her and was dangerous.
So consult with a veterinarian and/or dog behavior specialist and as a last resort, have it euthanized if there is no solution. Maybe the dog had a medical problem making it aggressive that could have been treated. Don't go redneck. And for God's sake don't put it in a book if you have political ambitions. How tone deaf can you be.
Sometimes sad choices have to be made. I commend her.
Yeah. Not a deal killer for me. I don't know much about Noem except she challenged drug trafficking on the reservations which i thought was good and was excoriated for same (how dare you assert we are trafficking drugs?Racism!).
Though I find no politicians inspiring.
You got what you wanted then.
You forgot "carefully-timed fraudulent criminal trials"
Absolutely!
Amen plus stop putting links to other news stories that require a subscription to read the article you’ve linked us to.
100% agree Tom
Ag school graduate here, Bari. You know what happens on farms? Animals are killed. Yeah, really.
The Kristi Noem thing is beneath you. I used to think.
The Free Press (aka The Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project) would literally have ZERO subject matter if it were not for the constant failures of Democratic policies across the United States. But regardless of the constant highlighting of failures that are in this publication, Bari and the editors just can't miss a chance to throw a snarky comment at conservatives. Real, substantive harm is done to the nation on a daily basis by Democrats. But since Republicans are just :bad" it won't matter.
Vote blue, no matter who!
If you click on the link accompanying Bari’s smear of Kristi Noem, it takes you to an article in The Guardian. If you read past a retelling of the criticism 1952 “Republican candidate for vice-president, Richard Nixon received for accepting his dog checkers as a political gift” and scroll past a re-post of 2012 “Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney” being “pilloried for tying a dog to the roof of the family car” you come to Kristi Noem, “a strong contender to be named running mate to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee”.
Here are a few pertinent quotes that provide context:
“on the way home after the hunt, Noem stopped to talk to a local family, Cricket 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”.
“When Noem finally grabbed Cricket, she says, the dog “whipped around to bite me”. Then, as the chickens’ owner wept, Noem repeatedly apologised, wrote the shocked family a check “for the price they asked, and helped them dispose of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime”.
By NOT providing context to stories like the Noem piece, and past pieces on other Make America Great Again republicans, Bari, Nellie and Ollie, make obvious that they have an agenda.
Yes. Part of the problem is that city people are totally detached from the realities of nature which is lived by rural people. A rogue dog that can't be trusted is not safe for anyone, even their owner. The dog was 14 months old--well past the point where such behavior would be acceptable. Plus, if the dog bit a PERSON, the ensuing law suit could break the owner financially. I would have put down that dog in a "New York minute," and I have always owned dogs and loved dogs. Time for some education for city folks on this topic.
Correct. But these days, the dog would be defended as being a victim of one sort or another.
Seems that the dog unpleasantness at the White House was pretty much ignored.
Timothy- you are so right. As much as they want to earn our trust, they repeatedly do this kind of thing.
And therein is the truth of partisanship…Skimming for agreeable info ….a common malady these days
Which is why I joined Common Sense (now TFP) to try to avoid this. I am not interested in agreeable information. I am interested in honest reporting.
Just dressed up in nicer clothes.
I have a major soft spot in my heart for dogs and believe anyone who would abuse an animal is sociopathic. When you finally hear the context in this case, it’s not the sociopath abuse of a dog, but a common response in rural communities to a dog who kills livestock. I would never have approached the situation that way and would have worked much harder to train the dog, but getting only part of a story to manipulate my emotions about dogs seems like more of the typical propaganda narrative against opposing candidates and that is just crazy making. We really need our sense-making institutions to quit lying to us.
Clay and Buck fell for it today.
The good news is that while TFP often misses the backstory, the commenters do not. Worth the price of admission.
Thank You! Yes to
C. O. N. T. E. X. T. !!!!!!
And do you know what happens to dogs in the city that are aggressive and bite people? They are either relinquished to a shelter that will euthanize them, or they will be confiscated and euthanized by animal control.
Because cretins who think this way ALWAYS want someone else to do the dirty work.
Tim K-- thank you for clarifying this story! Would've been so easy of TFP to give a balanced accounting. This makes them look like so many others (NYT,WSJ,NPR) an arm of the DNC!!!
Thanks for the info. I figured there was more to the story. But the dog murderer thing illustrates a broader problem - humans who kill other humans are deemed worthy of protection by the can't put 2 and 2 together crowd. I want a divorce from the effing people and I want to go with Daddy.
After this post I’m just about done with TFP.
Please don’t go Skinny, it cheers me to see your posts!
Okay, so there are still things she could have done besides shooting a young dog. There are dogs who have behavior problems, and there are ways to deal with them. There are experts who can train them, and if worse comes to worst, she could have given the dog up to a shelter or rehomed it. Maybe it wasn't meant to live on a farm around other animals. Unless a dog is violent with children and people and absolutely can't be a pet for anyone, there are other answers.
Regardless of the circumstances, this will absolutely NOT play with the public, left, right, or center. She would be a disastrous choice. Too much of a liability. And it is beyond bizarre why she would see fit to put that in a book. Somebody should have told her, it's not a good look.
According to TK, who bothered to read through the Republicans-are-not-good-fur-baby-parents leadup to the Noem story the dog was with her visiting neighbors when it got loose and murdered more than one chicken and when she grabbed it the dog turned and tried to bite her. That dog was a liability. I commend her for doing what needed to be done.
Read the rest of her story. She said she hated the dog. And she shot it in the face. She then grabbed a”smelly” goat that was mean (and uncastrated—not exactly the goat’s fault) and shot it in the same gravel pit right before her kids got off the school bus.
I am an Independent voter. Trump needs to show Noem the door. She is proud of killing an animal she hated and that’s fine. I wouldn’t vote for a ticket with her on it no matter who was at the top.
And yes. I understand the difference between farm and ranch animals and domestic pets. She sounds like a very irresponsible animal owner to me.
And you can call me anything you want but my pets don’t get shot, put down because I can’t handle them or abandoned. And I would never accept someone like her as number two in a ticket.
Pretty sure I’m not the only one.
Amen. In Trump's situation, he can't afford one wrong move or bad choice. He can't afford a Sarah Palin dragging his ticket down. Noem would be a liability on his ticket. She probably would be anyway even without this, with her various issues. Now the pundits and comics are sharpening their knives.
Tulsi Gabbard for veep. Announce it. Now.
I read it too, why did you think I didn't? I'm still not giving her a pass. There are other ways to deal with these situations. Dog owners do it all the time.
Some do, some don't. Rural people put down dogs that kill farm animals all the time. Most states have laws that protect those people from animal abuse charges.
"There are dogs who have behavior problems, and there are ways to deal with them"
Sorry, but it was clear from the article that the dog was non-compliant before it savaged the chickens. It didn't kill them because it was hungry, it killed them for sport and then tried to bite Noem when she tried to stop it. As someone raised with farm animals and hunting dogs, I will tell you from experience, the dog was aberrant and no amount of training was going to change it. You may may not like the manner in which she killed it, but it was the right thing to do.
And aren't hunting dogs bred to kill prey? Including fowl like ducks and geese? So, the dog was acting out in a way that it was bred to.
Doesn't matter. Then rehome it somewhere off a farm, give it to someone who has no other animals. Consult with a vet over the best solution. If the vet agrees it should be put down, then do that. But don't go Annie Oakley on it. Killing it should be a last resort. I can't imagine putting any pet of mine to death without getting another opinion. She put it in her book, so she opened herself up to public criticism and judgment. There are too many other qualified veep picks who didn't shoot a dog. Even the conservative Babylon Bee is shredding her over this. When you lose the conservative press, it's over.
Thank you for the real story. I was convinced that there might have been major omissions.
I was kinda put off myself by the My Pillow dig. We love those pillows in my house!
Ollie has to signal his Leftist credentials.
Celia I am beginning to see that it is not leftist or Democrat. Rather I think it is elitism. The elites are having a falling out. Nothing more. Nothing less. And I feel nothing but contempt for people who feel they are "elite" for doing nothing more than attending the "right school" or living in the "right neighborhood". Is that not the true exemplar of privilege?
And so you should, I have his towels and sheets, Mike is an all American company, not good enough for Bari and Co they would rather promote Taylor Swift who doesn’t give a shit about America.
That's how I felt!
I am ready to buy some more!
Not to mention, in their very first issue, they have to put their abortion agenda front and center right in your face. What was the point of that? I find it a turnoff.
Me too. Now we are going to have social media influencers in Congress.
"The Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project". Yeah, I think you nailed it. Problem is the project has no objectives other than to increase subscribers.
I think you nailed both obsrrvations.
I've been disgusted with the media attack on Noem by "journalists" who clearly never grew up anywhere near a rural area.
Let me put this simply: not *all* dogs are good dogs. Most are good dogs, fortunately. But if you've never owned a dog with serious, unmanageable problems, you don't have a clue how destructive and dangerous such a dog can be. More so where there are other animals involved.
On a farm, the rational option (as with any animal that has to be put down) is to put a bullet through the dog's brain. I've never done it, btw, but the fact that Noem did is, indeed, testament to her grit.
Or you could take a perfectly fine animal and put it in the hands of a congenital idiot and fool.
And then you'd end up with "Commander," the biting German Shepherd.
Actually, the First Family ended up with TWO biting German Shepherds. One I might attribute to a defect in the dog. Two points to defects in the owners.
The Biden’s kept those miserable dogs that continued to bite and injure numerous secret service officers, putting their favorite but dreadful dog above the officers sworn to protect or die; a telling display of disregard and just plain abuse of those they consider beneath them. Not to mention vindictive side of repeatedly refusing to grant RFK secret service protection although other candidates w/ only 1% of vote are approved. And affirming years of solitary confinement of J6 prisoners to keep the myth of insurrection alive while ignoring terrorists & criminals pouring across the border; or poorly disguised disdain for women with Title 9 executive orders that puts caricatures above them. Oh no no no, that’s kind “friendly” Joe!
The very same "friendly" Joe who liked to swim naked while female Secret Service agents were on duty. No regard for the fact this made them extremely uncomfortable.
Ugh. Didn't know about that one. That's sure not a job I could do. I wonder if those XX agents will someday seek out the courts (or the court of the media) now that its been determined presidents are not "above the law".
They are the most abusive administration we have ever in our history, God help us!
Excerpt from an article by Miranda Devine in today's NYPost about Joe Biden and the myth of his so-called decency.
There’s nothing decent about:
Helping your family sell out the country to shady foreigners for tens of millions of dollars — and then pretending you know nothing about it.
Inviting millions of illegal migrants into the country — and then lying that the border is secure.
Inviting a transgender influencer to the White House who bares their breasts on the White House lawn.
Sniffing and fondling children and women every chance you get.
Allegedly sexually assaulting Tara Reade.
Presiding over such a decline in decorum in Washington that cocaine is discovered at the White House and a Democratic staffer posts an X-rated video of his gay sex romp inside a Senate hearing room.
Rewriting Title IX into a radical attack on girls and women.
Allowing White House and campaign staff to refer routinely to Trump as “Hitler Pig.”
Cursing out staff and calling a reporter a “stupid son of a bitch.”
Refusing to acknowledge your out-of-wedlock grandchild until forced to issue a statement as part of a child support settlement Hunter Biden struck with the mother, and then failing to include the little girl in the annual family Christmas stocking lineup at the White House.
Lying that the innocent truck driver involved in the fatal collision with your first wife was drunk.
Refusing to provide Secret Service protection to Bobby Kennedy Jr., despite threats against him and the history of assassination in his family.
Botching the withdrawal from Afghanistan so that 13 service members are killed by a suicide bomber and then ordering a revenge hit that takes out an innocent Afghan aid worker and his family.
Continually looking at your watch in boredom as the bodies of the 13 heroes are repatriated to Dover Air Force Base, and then infuriating the families by making it about yourself and the fantasy that your son died in combat, too.
Allowing your dogs to attack Secret Service agents.
Role-playing as a devout Catholic while championing abortion on demand until the moment of birth.
If you want to vote for Joe Biden, that’s your choice, but don’t pretend it’s a vote for decency.
Dogs have a tendency to somewhat mimic their owners. Having 2 biting dogs is very likely to be an issue with the owners. That said, it is very possible that the Bidens have very little actual contact with the dogs outside of photo ops. So hard to know what is real or fake with lifetime politicians.
I've wondered about that. But I recall reading something that suggested that the Bidens spend as much time with their dogs as they can.
The real question, of course, is why both of these dogs were allowed to continue to bite people for such a long time before being removed from the White House. In the real world, a dog that bites even ONCE may be ordered put down. To subject the people around the POTUS to repeated incidents of biting without consequence is a very clear indicator that even Biden's dogs are not subject to the same rules as the rest of us.
Doubtful it was the dog's fault. I've had some great ones but none better than Billy, the big Golden Retriever whom we all adored. As a pup he nipped me and I bit him right back (Ok a bit extreme but those who've come to know me probably aren't surprised). He got the message. Never was a more loyal dog, gentle to most but fierce to aggressors. Biden's pets and family are a mess. Why is anyone surprised that America is suffering the same fate.
The dogs weren't isolated incidents. There is Hunter, whose misdeeds are widely known. And poor Ashley who can't have a normal relationship because of her deviant "dad." Remind me again why people thought it wise to put our nation in the hands of such malevolent miscreants..........
They should have called M/s Noem in she would have sorted the biters out immediately 😃
I'd take Kristi in a foxhole next to me anytime! (yeah that's a no brainer..)
😂😂😂I wish Commander would have bitten the other commander he is definitely in need of a massive bite out of his buttocks🇺🇸
LMAO
Agreed. But having to shoot a vicious dog and saying you hate a dog are different things. Farm animals are put down all the time, usually reluctantly because they're valuable, or with acceptance because they're a financial drain. But "hate"? That I find strange.
If a dog has killed other animals (either beloved pets or valuable livestock), bit people (especially children), or destroyed property (especially of personal value), I can easily understand using the word "hate."
It's not a great rhetorical choice in a country where everyone practically worships dogs. But I get where she's coming from.
Not everyone worships dogs. As a former paper boy: "He's friendly" is a bigger lie than "The check is in the mail."
Right. People treat dogs today as if they were their children. A dog is a dog, not a child, and a dog needs lots of love and care, yes, but also boundaries. Again, the overall problem is that too many people today are detached from nature and don't know how to set boundaries that a dog understands and obeys. And when you have one that is violent, they ignore it.
Growing up, whenever my mom and I expressed concern over bad weather or some other challenge for our family pet, my very sensible, practical, literally-the-son-of-a-small-town-butcher Daddy would say sternly, “It’s a DOG!” He truly is a kind and compassionate man and loves the little doggie he cares for now (as his mind slips farther and farther away,) but he (and my mom, as well) understood animals’ place in relation to human beings. We live in an upside down world!
Like the Bidens, they're simply entitled.
Here! Here! LMAO at the memories of being a paper boy...
i'm pretty confident that present day delivery drivers (amazon, ups, fed ex,) and usps carriers will agree with you on that "he's friendly" lie, too. a lot of dogs just don't like anyone in any kind of uniform for some reason, even if you've had them since a wee puppy (i speak from personal experience and have heard anecdotally from others).
Not everyone. But most people, it seems.
I like dogs (I even tend to make a fuss over every friendly dog I meet), but I don't like them well enough to own one at this point. I grew up with Miniature Pinschers, but the reality was that they had to be locked up every time people came over, because they WOULD bite people they didn't know well. I fell in love with cats in my teens, so cats have always been my pet of choice as an adult.
Our younger son wanted a dog badly, so we had a Jack Russell Terrier for several years. Over time, the dog became less and less manageable, in spite of training, until eventually he was biting even me (whom he had hitherto viewed as the pack leader). My husband demanded that I get rid of him, so I took him to the pound, knowing they would almost certainly put him down as unadoptable. It broke my son's heart (and mine), but we had run out of options.
When we were planning to move to a more rural, but rougher, part of town, I was planning to get a dog for protection. Now that we aren't moving, the likelihood of getting any other dog has gone way down. I don't have the energy to deal with a dog "just because."
I get that most people adore them, but I can't help thinking that too many people adore them primarily because they love having an animal that worships them.
i remember when jack russell terriers jumped in popularity when "frasier" rose to fame, but the breed is too intelligent and high energy. it needs to work and are successful ratters because they love to dig and run! there are so many breeds of dogs out there (just like cats!) but most are not meant to be taken out of their ideal environment (rural settings) and made into suburban and urban (apartment) dogs or be around kids.
Well, at least Gov. Noem won’t have to put one of those stupid “HATE HAS NO HOME HERE” signs up on her lawn….
Tim Mc--- Love it!!!
You'd think they'd have trained the dog or tied up the dog or euthanized it before it got to that point. Hating an animal is weird. Just saying that it's more than a life-on-the-farm thing.
Some dogs resist all attempts at training. And being tied up all the time is no life for a dog, especially if they howl or bark all the time. Some dogs are escape artists who will manage to break any confinement.
She probably didn't kill the dog before because she hated the idea of doing it. Who wants to kill a dog? She didn't kill it until she had reached her breaking point--until she had reached the point where she hated the dog more than she hated the idea of killing the dog.
I agree that would have made more sense to euthanize it sooner (which would still have been done by shooting it). But when you consider that other people's feelings about the dog were likely involved (children's, spouses?), I get why it was delayed until there was no other choice.
Well, that makes sense -- that they'd tried everything else first. And I wasn't questioning the use of a gun. Or advocating keeping a dog on a chain all its life.
My question is in regard to her feelings about the dog. Altogether too passionate -- I would think -- for a seasoned farm person.
In any event, Trump needs a counterweight who can help him reassure the jittery, not choose someone who will make them more so.
Same here. Especially after dealing with a vicious dog for years.
I suspect that the people hating on Noem have never been in the unenviable position of having to be the decision-maker in dealing with a pet that has become vicious.
He was with her at a neighbor's place, got loose and killed more than one chicken. He killed the chicken then dropped it before moving on to the next one so he was not killing because he was hungry. The dog was a predator. While in her presence. When she grabbed him to subdue him the dog tried to bite her. That is clear indicia of a dangerous dog.
She was training it to be a hunting dog. The dog didn’t hunt. So she stopped at a place with chickens. Seriously? Yep. That kind of judgment belongs to someone who could send in the SEALs. No, thank you.
FWIW she is not my pick. But I do not have an issue with what she did. It was a working dog unfit for its duty. It killed the neighbor's chickens. It turned on its owner. An animal like that is a liability.
The hell it is. Dogs are trainable and by her own account she shot the dog in the face, then grabbed a “smelly” goat and shot him, too. That’s not life on a farm, that’s disgusting and cruel and she makes me sick.
Sorry, not sorry. I will never see that woman in the same way again.
Ditto. I'm not a fan of the Noem apologists, sorry. It reveals a mean streak, and regardless, the optics of it for a potential veep pick are terrible. Choose a running mate who didn't murder a dog.
Give the murder thing a break. Murders are committed against humans.
That it happens, fine and true. To write and brag about it when you're angling for the VP slot shows some judgement issues. People love dogs, especially puppies. The first thing a successful politician needs to do is be able to read a room. That may fly in agricultural South Dakota (or even my state, Ohio). But the optics are horrible and it highlights a lack of judgement on the governor's part.
Or she was just trying to give an honest telling of her life experiences. I’ll take honesty over scrubbing one’s past any day.
Kristi's prancing around in those "come to South Dakota TV" ads--too cute!--shows her penchant for self-promotion and her lack of seriousness. Now, saddled with a dead dog, she isn't going anywhere.
How many people did "Commander" bite?
Read somewhere more than a dozen
My first thought was exactly that. Is she so tone deaf as to think this could do nothing but hurt her politically. My second thought was, she's a psychopath so that's why she didn't understand the ramifications.
No one gives a fuck about your feels.
But the thing is, when you're trying to be a presidential candidate's running mate, you had better give a fuck about a lot of people's feels, because voters vote on their feels whether we like it or not. Fail.
Wrong. Lots of people do. What no one gives a fuck about are your opinions.
A decent report contains the backstory but the MSM and apparently TFP were only interested in the fact that Governor Noem killed a dog, letting readers think this was Lassie or Snoopy. (In the first episode of House of Cards, the ruthless Frank Underwood kills an injured dog to put it out of its misery - possibility the analogy some reporters wanted to draw.)
Most have zero idea about what happens on a farm.
Dwight Schrute attempted to educate his coworkers at The Office about life on a farm, many times. But I don’t think many of them really understood, especially Angela, who blamed him for the death of Sprinkles. Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica.
I've killed many beets. You gotta do what ya gotta do. Best to do it in the oven.
That's true for me. I'm still not over the movie Old Yell'er which I saw as a young kid about six decades ago!
We had to put down some of our cows. Definitely sad to watch. What would have been worse was to watch them slowly die.
Sad, but this wasn't that! The puppy was annoying, untrainable (in her hands). Not dying from some dread disease. Sadder.
The puppy was a predator.
I agree with you to a degree NCMaureen. Having grown up in rural Louisiana I have memories of having to make hard decisions about putting down animals by shooting them. I recall my grandfather having to kill a puppy that he didn't believe was viable. It was rough to watch, but today I understand the compassion he had for not wanting another living thing to suffer, and taking the most humane route he could to end it.
That said, the Noem story wouldn't be so hard to stomach if she hadn't written “I hated that dog,”. That statement was the achilles heal for her and used as bait for wide criticism on X and all the left leaning media sites. If you read the Gaurdian piece its clear that dog was problematic and aggressive and the The Free Press could have focused on the numerous examples Noem gave, but chose to ignore that and write the hit piece on her instead....and yes....Mitt Romney dog incident reference was as chickenshit as it gets. That's the ever present left leaning bias that we continue to witness bleeding through the veneer at TFP and won't get remedied until Bari brings on journalists that are center or center right to balance the writing IMO.
There are some animals that are true sociopaths. Perhaps this dog was one? I'm an animal lover, but I can understand her actions and feelings.
Fire Oilie. Job jobbed.
Yeah. People seem to think that farms are all unicorns and nicey-nicey. They don't realize it is mostly about death. Little things being killed by bigger things then being killed by even bigger things. Half-eaten corpses being devoured by the scavengers. Even the plants are trying to kill each other for a better chance of survival. Farms are a dynamic, energizing example of the cycle of life -- which is mostly about managing death. And a scrap of available protein is perhaps the most important prize any one of the millions of life form on a farm can win.
I feel like this POV would make for an interesting book or nature series.
I think you would enjoy reading Joel Salatin.
I have read a lot of Salatin's work. I am pretty damn sure he would not shoot a puppy because it was annoying. He respects animals .
Noem did not shoot a puppy because it was annoying. She shot an adult dog (14 months is over one year old, in case you have trouble with the math, like parents who describe their preschooler as "38 months old") that was killing other animals.
So many are separated from country/farm/ranch life. I was raised on a ranch and this happens. Sometimes dogs need to be put down. At least people could do is read Old Yeller. Sometimes it’s in everyone’s best interest to put down a dog and let it be done.
Yeah, it’s a cultural thing.
I often agree with you Maureen, and I will say it is somewhat disengenous for those having fits over Kristi Noem's "mercy" killing when they themselves are eating factory farmed animals delivered to them in plastic wrap. However, here I can't disagree with you more! These animals were pets. Both could have been adopted out; the dog could have been trained. I am not a fan of Biden but at least he didn't kill Commander. Shooting your pets, one because it is annoying (I don't know why she shot the goat) looks to me to be on some kind of psychopath continuum.
She shot the goat because she didn’t like it and it was smelly.
Is there no vet within a 20-mile radius that could have put it down? It seems so 19th century.
Some people find it immoral to expect others to do their dirty work.
So everyone should take their sick dogs and cats out in the back yard and shoot them?? Or was she afraid that if she took it to a vet the vet would raise an objection to euthanizing a healthy young dog for a behavioral issue?
She sucks, and I don't want her as Trump's running mate. When even conservative media is ripping you, you're done. She should have kept it to herself.
Sick animals are often put down. It is considered a merciful thing at some point. Having vets do it is a pretty modern phenomena. But this was not a dog with a health problem. It displayed predatory behavior.
Yeah - you shoot animals when they are sick or in distress - not when they make you mad.
Sounds like the dog wasn't trained well and should've been given up for adoption.
Sorry - I will never think of her the same way again....there are other solutions than shooting it. Nasty.
Oh and while we're at it - I never like that goat either - hand me my shotgun.
It was in her biography - those are her words - why can't they publish that?
TFP isn't here to serve up only what we like. Maybe it's easier for me to swallow, because she's not my cup of tea.
Yeah, because giving it up for adoption will transform the dog into a non chicken killer.
I think what she did is horrible and that's that. The dog was 14 months old and not well trained. It goes to a home/rescue that trains it well and gives it a chance. Where there aren't any chickens. Hell, my mom had backyard chickens and a neighborhood dog killed one. They didn't take him out back and shoot him.
And I sure wouldn't go bragging about it in a book. If she can't read the room enough to know that's not gonna sit well, she has no business running for VP.
She and her glam squad can stay in ND.
Prat.
I do think it was colossally stupid for Noem to put that in a memoir. Just as I don’t want to know every pop tart or “stars” thought on well most of anything, I don’t need or want to hear any pol’s thoughts on everything either.
I find you colossally stupid for thinking that. ;-)
Most decent human beings would recognize the difference between slaughtering an animal for food and killing your family pet because you hate it, but I suppose the key word there is "decent."
The dog was killed for killing chickens and then going after its' owner.
So, that's the story now? A vicious chicken killer who attacked its owner? Very convenient cover story but in conflict with her original story about being upset with the 14-month-old dog's inability to hunt and shot it after it failed to hunt pheasants for her. What are we to believe about this?
I have done my share of hunting upland game birds and have run across hunters who think nothing of killing or abandoning a dog that won't hunt or one that's too old. I have come across dog carcasses in the fields where they were shot, and it disgusts me. I have had to put down old or injured dogs, and I have done so humanely. I am aware of a class of people who think that the only value of a dog's life is to bring in food. These are the people who worry me on a hunt.
As the owner of a very well trained retriever, hunting dogs are not supposed to do the killing. Even coon dogs are supposed to tree, not kill. Noem's dog was a predator. He broke loose. He killed a chicken, dropped it, then went for more. It tried to bite her. That is a dangerous dog.
One of the collies up for adoption at a collie rescue I look at (and contribute to) killed chickens in his former home. That was in the description. He was adopted by people who didn't keep chickens. I do not know if he's good with cats, but if the "after" photo is right, he's good with other big dogs.
Some dogs aren't good with smaller critters. I wouldn't adopt any of them.
We had three old dogs pass 6 months apart. We went without for awhile because we are empty nesters. But we are dog people so we had a void. My adult children insisted that we adopt a rescue. I tried, diligently, for 6 months to find a good fit. But 90% of the dogs available were pitbull mixes and I do not want a pittie. I know people who swear by them but that is a breed designed for fighting and killing. As an owner you have to be the alpha. If you are not the alpha the dog is. And that can be very dangerous with a strong dog.
AND apparently had a history of violence.
Noem did not mention that history of violence in her 14-month-old wire-haired terrier in the original story. Guess it came back to her on afterthought.
So, digging deeper into Noem's account of killing her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer after it failed to hunt and Noem deemed it untrainable, she reported that on the way home, it attacked a flock of chickens and turned to bite her when she pulled back on its leash. None of this is surprising for a 14-month-old dog who is untrained, but Noem goes on to say that she "hated" that dog. My concern is for anyone on her staff who is slow to learn his job. They had better not follow her into the gravel pit.
You can’t assume the dog hadn’t had some training. A pointer who doesn’t want to hunt is kind of strange to me. I grew up with highly trained hunting dogs. Some were pointers; others English Shepard’s. Sounds like something was off with this dog. Many of the hunt dogs are wildly expensive.
Someone said the dog’s history is in the Guardian article.
Just add that to the list of sins for the "basket of deplorable's..."
Except it was a pet dog, not a farm animal. To me, it reveals something a little ugly about her character. It seems there could have been alternatives to what she did. I have no problem with TFP writing about it.
But then I already didn't care much for Noem. I find her phony and a suspect RINO. I think there are much better Veep prospects for Trump. She has too much baggage, with the extramarital affair thing as well.
"She has too much baggage, with the extramarital affair thing as well."
Yeah. Trump's already checked that box a few times (no pun intended - they just write themselves)
Exactly, which is why the last thing he needs is a running mate with her own scandals. Not with the Trump-hating media ready to swoop.
She also vetoed a bill that would protect girls in sports, and she's widely viewed as RINO because of it.
I did not read anything about the Kristi Noem issue. I assumed there was more to it than was being reported, and after reading the comments here, that appears to be the case. I get that context is important, but maybe a little thought by Ms. Noem would have lead her to the decision that being a conservative she is not going to get the benefit of context from the press; it will just be reported that she killed a puppy. I get that stuff happens on farms that I do not want to know about, but maybe some things don't need to be published when you know it will be used against you.
Kristy Noem is a puppy killer. Unforgivable- and shows her cold, dark heart. I grew up on a farm too, and we euthanized animals that were terminally sick and suffering- no puppies.
Um, 14 months old is not a puppy.
Right--people are equating dog years to children years. Not a puppy. And had a history... A ticking time bomb for hurting a human.
You are all crass naivete; ignorance; and feels. I'll take Kristy.
Thank you for the compliments.
Blanks on shechita too? :-)
Bari, who took the cheap shot at republicans in the Noem recap? The phrase was something like her actions were better than the leading Republicans who put their dogs on the roof of the car. That statement linked a wikipedia piece about Mitt Romney doing that 30 years ago. You cant say you bring light not heat then throw in cheap shots like that. Leading Republicans? One 30 year old example? My guess is Ollie put that in as he takes cheap shots at conservatives and MAAAaaaaGAs on a regular basis. He is damaging the brand. If I am wrong and you took the cheap shot, I am sure it was onetime lapse
Ollie damages the brand on the regular. I am baffled by Bari's decision to put him in charge.
I feel badly, but I haven’t seen anybody stand up for Oliver, other than Bari.
I, too, was stunned that they put him in charge of this project (which I found confusing and a little tough to read this morning). I’m starting to believe other posters, now, that the mission of TFP is to reeducate all of us white (look at the hands holding the phones and tablets in those doofey photos folks send into TGIF - full disclosure: I sent one in last fall…) liberal arts college grads and bring us back into the reliable blue-voting bloc.
I would really like to know what caused her to decide to hire him. Initially, I thought he was one of the interns, and was being given a trial run as editor due to talent. But that is evidently not the case.
Apparently he's British? Former editor of The Spectator World, which seems to be a lot more conservative than TFP. If Bari hired him thinking he would bring a more conservative view to TFP, she miscalculated badly.
In current politics a Conservative in British politics is not a Conservative in US politics - their version is more our center or center-left, which aligns with TFP perspective. For the British version of US politics I much prefer National Review's Charles C.W. Cooke, who is now a US citizen- and far more in tune with our founding fathers and individual freedoms.
Charles C.W. Cooke is awesome! He writes with biting sarcasm about the various spineless politicians in power. He knows the U.S. Constitution better than most Americans. And he thinks deeply about the issues facing the country. Anyone who reads TFP should also check out National Review.
A Conservative in our politics is a flaming libtard! The screaming loony in the brand overpowers anything sensible about it.
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/16/free-press-raise-bari-weiss
I haven't heard much lately about Biden's dog Commander, who was biting White House staff left and right. Did Commander just disappear? Maybe it's time for some serious investigative journalism.
Commander is just misunderstood.
Commander's "master" was the problem.
Yes. In my experience, a maladjusted dog is a reflection of its owner.
Maybe. But I also think dogs today have possible medical issues. I assume you know they get as many vaccines as humans do these days. And are taken to the vet for the slightest issues, where they get even more meds. Another toxic business model people have been trained to use.
no joke
I see lots of comments about how Noem's problem was that she didn't train, or didn't know how to train, the dog even though it's pretty clear this is just one of several dogs she's worked with. Biden has had multiple dogs (don't forget they had to take his previous dog 'Major' out of the WH as well) with obedience and control issues.
Perhaps both of those beautiful dogs were for ornamental purpose. See Mr commander in chief. Backfire….ownership requires bonding as well as responsibility. Hopefully both were reformed.
Kristi killed him.
(JOKING! I love Kristi Noem, but couldn't pass up on that softball. I fully expect that TFP knows someone in intelligence who is ready to launch a full investigation into my background)
I heard Noem adopted Commander - but only for a short period of time.
The opening statement should be refined to say “selective light not heat”. The promise to be fair may be suspended if FP staff doesn’t like something. Then it’s open season to use free fall snark and sarcasm (the latter coming from Greek word “sarcazo” meaning “to tear flesh”), but of course that’s only used to assure a truly balanced reveal of “the full truth” not just opinion or deeply held bias, right?
Bari, I think the readers deserve an answer to my question. Who took the cheap shot at Republicans, and if Ollie, why is he working for the Free Press
Obligatory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbBL62IiRE
Not sure I understand why there is more outrage over killing a dog than over killing a baby. Both are awful but seriously one is worse
Quite an interesting perspective. I am willing to bet the ven diagram of people complaining about the dog thing and the people who are ok with abortions has a lot of overlap. Interesting cognitive dissonance.
Yep, these are primarily the same people that would call their dog a "furkid" and a real kid a "clump of cells". And think that they are amazing humans for doing so. SMH
This should have hundreds more “likes” and be the top comment, if you ask me.
I was about to write the same.
I'm an author and an indie publisher. It's well known in the publishing world that you NEVER kill the dog unless you're writing John Wick.
It doesn't have to be either or. See Matthew Scully, Mary Eberstadt, Charles Camsosy.
Who is killing babies? Your lift doesn't leave the basement, pet.
The Free Press is what it is: a refuge for liberal media who knows their bias is a wrong, struggle with it daily, but can’t help themselves when a tidbit pops up that gives them the chance to take a shot at republicans/MAGA/conservatives. These writers are like AA meeting attendees who profess the evils of alcohol but relapse when a drink is put in front of them.
Take the abortion story to start off this newsletter. Nobody likes to hear about a baby with abnormal and likely fatal development issues. Nobody likes to hear about a mother whose life could be in danger. All valid points, yet brought up in a way to suggest resistance to abortion is evil. Yet, is there ever a story about the young children orphaned because their mother died of a drug overdose with drugs brought through our open border?
I personally don’t mind reading TFP’ work, but always know in the back of my mind they are really lean just a little less left, as they say. I want multiple points of view. The Free Press is just one view. I wouldn’t call it trust, as Bari alludes to, but rather a knowledge that I’m getting a watered down but still known point of view. I just hope she doesn’t think that by being making jokes, she is slipping her bias past us readers. It’s still there, just more subtle.
Your first paragraph nails it
Yes, the reports of women with seriously damaged fetuses who cannot obtain a legal and safe abortion are appalling and republicans need to get their act together on reasonable exceptions for rape, incest, and health of the mother circumstances. That said, these cases are the exceptions in a sea of situations where two people are too irresponsible to use birth control, and ought to use redundant methods if necessary. Abortion as a lazy person’s birth control method is vastly more common. The published article raises serious policy concerns, but honest reporting demands that stories of late term abortions that involve the in-utero dissection of a viable fetus be covered as well and at least as frequently.
Subtle? So they chuck breeze-block not brick; you still be badly wounded.
Looks like another big hit for the Free Press. The combination of incisive reporting with tongue-in-cheek style ("tentifada" made my day) is irresistible. Looking forward to more. BTW, the report on the Air Force contract award for development of an unmanned fighter jet is long overdue. The money spent on developing advanced manned aircraft to stay one step ahead of our adversaries has flown (forgive me) in the face of IT/UAV technology that has flooded the skies with advanced weapons that do not require the additional size, weight, cost, and operational limits imposed on the design by the addition of a human pilot. Right now, we have the capability to flood the skies with swarms of small armed drones that can defeat the latest manned fighters. and if we can do it, you can bet that the PRC can as well.
So now we're picking winners, Ms Weiss? Not very freepressish.
Is that what that pinned thing is? TFP has actually had to pin a flattering comment to the top of this comment thread? Umm, ok.
I was trying to figure this out too. If that's it, it does seem a little off-kilter
You could make the comments sorted and searchable (like Amazon reviews) - star or thumbs up thumbs down system and you can choose to read both the positive and negative.
If it wasn't broken (and it was not) it requires no repair. That pesky "free" thingee...
Just to be crystal clear: Sort by "Top First." The subject comment has 19 "likes;" 6 at the time I responded. The Previous Top Post has 106 "likes;" don't recall how many at time of response.
QED.
I prefer 'new first' because I enjoy reading all of the comments. I really don't pay attention to how many likes. And I really don't like intentionally pinning a preferred comment.
I prefer the new first option too. Likes are fun, but I kinda wish no one ever thought that up, cuz it is distracting and for those vulnerable to manipulation, not this group of course, it definitely influences attention.
It works the same way with "Chronological," my go-to; "Top" is the default that comes up when I want to see a comment in context.
I don’t like it. Now I have to scroll down to see the new comments.
The pinned comment stays at the top whichever configuration. Is chosen. That’s why it’s pinned.
Thanks, Unwoke. Is it still pinned? It looks like the comment falls in numeric order in terms of its number of likes when viewed "top first" and when I view comments by "newest" the comment falls away. On rare occasion (maybe even only once before) I've seen that Substack highlights likes by TFP staff members.
Yeah, that feels familiar.
Being me, I have long vastly more enjoyed going into hostile territory and trying to keep my cool and say relevant and intelligent things. But it always gets me censored quickly.
How has America become so effing stupid? Simple: dialogue is suppressed. Alternative and very valid and viable ideas are simply squashed. Those with important insights into how to solve problems Democrats SAY they want to solve are silenced and ignored.
How is possible to claim sincere goodwill and humanitarianism when the whole focus is achieving apparent consensus and not practical effects that are useful?
The mobs and censors are never on the side that means well. Never.
Does this mean TFP is turning into the Drudge report? Drudge is an eclectic news site, reporting on a vast number of subjects from serious news to "Man Bites Dog" articles.
Suzy Weiss, would you please remove the pin you placed on this comment. I don't need the comment section curated as well.
And no comment on the reports that the New York Times is preparing an investigative piece on Bari? This might not be a good time for Ms. Weiss to antagonize the people who would be her defenders but for a touch more balance in TFP reporting.
"Right now, we have the capability to flood the skies with swarms of small armed drones that can defeat the latest manned fighters. and if we can do it, you can bet that the PRC can as well."
Sci-Fi Short Film “Slaughterbots” | DUST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU
Oct 17, 2019 #DUST #scifi #shortfilm
In a dystopian world a new form of A.I. weaponry has been created. All these drone bots need is a profile: age, sex, fitness, uniform, and ethnicity. Nuclear is obsolete. Take out your entire enemy virtually risk free. Just characterize him, release the swarm, and rest easy.
"Slaughterbots" directed by Stewart Sugg
Not far in the future?
It may be here. And we still sweat manned anything military.
"we still sweat manned anything military."
Today...20 years from now..? Not so much.
Something I have been saying since 2008(?) "That Little Silicon Chips is Changing Everything. Now some changes will be Good (I've read about Maasai using The Net to find out the best time to sell a cow) some Not So Good (Facial Recognition). But if you are over (say) 60, the world you grew up in...GONE.
In the Air Staff at the Pentagon in the 1980s, I mentioned to some of the pilots in the fighter mafia who were busily selling the development of the Next Generation Fighter for the 21st Century that, if I were in the Army or in Moscow, I would be feverishly working on the development of advanced drone technology to develop swarms of cheap, intelligent UAVs to counter any manned fighters on the horizon. It turns out that the Army was actually working on this for air defense. The thinking of the Air Force at the time ("The mission of the Air Force is to fly and to fight, and don't you forget it!") was to ignore the great leaps in UAV/AI technology and to press on to develop ever more expensive fighter aircraft that the nation could hardly afford to buy in quantity. Like the mounted French knights in their expensive armor and weaponry, mounted on expensive steeds who fell to the yeomen with their cheap longbows and swarms of cheap arrows at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, the new knights of the air failed to recognize the changed nature of combat. And so with the massed lines of infantry at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg mowed down with cannister shot and rifled infantry weapons, and the lines of infantry at Verdun who faced the entrenched machineguns, and the dense fortifications of the Maginot line which fell to a combination of airpower and tanks. Military technology always seems to lead military thinking about the best way to fight, making a truism that generals are always ready to fight the last war. Have we learned anything? We'll have to wait and see.
" Have we learned anything? We'll have to wait and see."
The Pentagon Learn Something?
Whoever wrote the blurb on Kristi Noem would do well to read the linked account in The Guardian. Unlike Commander and Major, Biden’s biting pooches, Cricket attacked only Noem herself — after massacring a flock of chickens. Kinda like that cuddly neighborhood pitty that rips the face off a toddler, Cricket was a killer that had to be put down.
Speaking of our Dog Whisper in Chief, it’s chilling that he leaves our troops and untold numbers of Afghanis exposed and turns his back on our closest ally in the Middle East with the same cruel, calculating heartlessness ascribed to Noem. Yet the leftist media types applaud his “decency.” I’m really disappointed in TheFP for not digging deeper. Anything for a chuckle.
The Kristi Norm bit didn't just undermine the credibility of this article and its authors, it showed us the extent to which these LA California Bubble-ites have no concept of rural life.
They think killing a dog is the most shocking and inhuman idea ever because that's how their television stories manipulate their feelings. If you can't handle a movie where the dog dies, you have the emotional maturity of a child.
ANYONE growing up on a farm lives with death constantly.
I'm more concerned with the leftist Democrat anti-racists who decided rape isn't a bit deal if it's "resistance" and if the victim is a Jew. But TFP has less outrage for that than they do for Trump, MTG, Kristi or whatever fashionable leftist target of the day.
Oh btw, we have American citizens still held hostage in Gaza and Biden has totally ignored them, never once said their names.
Growing up we had an Angus we named Blackie. One day Blackie wasn’t at the trough. Not long afterward, our mom informed us Blackie was on our plates. I wonder if any of the Bubble-ites has ever read The Yearling.
As for our hostages, it’s hard for Biden to say their names when he probably hasn’t bothered to learn them.
Perhaps more concern from TFP about American hostages still being held by Hamas!!! Biden has done nothing!
Our beef was packaged and frozen with their given names ; ) !
Its why I refer to all the cows around here as "Fajita". Naming them seems a bit silly to me.
It’s been my experience that you don’t name animals you’re going to eat.
We named every one of ours - we were realistic and mature enough to know where our food comes from.
Many of us have read The Yearling and seen the film. I don't think any of the Baxters hated Flag. If anything, they hated the sad necessity of shooting him.
Kristi Noem wrote she hated the dog. Then killed a goat she also hated for good measure. Read her own description. No one manipulated the story. This is a self-inflicted wound, not a hit job.
It's stupid gossipy nonsense that isn't worth my time nor attention.
You seem to have plenty of time to keep commenting on it.
Because logging in and replying to you takes a grand total of about 30 seconds, which is 30 seconds more time than I'm giving to stupid drama.
Not every dog is Snoopy or Lassie. My guess is she did hate the dog, which, as I said was, a killer. Should she have waited till it mauled a child? And by the way, the goat was an uncastrated male that was attacking her kids. Again, not a fuzzy, cuddly pet. Look, I’m no Kristi Noem fan. But she did what she had to do. I guess, for that matter, Biden did too.
Never said it was. And perhaps you should read the excerpt from Noem’s book before you start lecturing other people. I don’t care how many cows or dogs or goats your family killed. That’s your business. But Noem put this out there and she’s hoping to show how she’d be a tough VP. For many of us Disney huggy feely types who’ve been called all kinds of names for giving a damn that a potential VP candidate shot her dog in the face, excuse me. I really don’t care what you think. You do you and I will do me.
I won’t vote for a ticket she’s on. Period.
Bari - this would have been a very good idea. If you hadn't put Wiseman in charge. More of the same snarky, left leaning, content-light silliness won't enhance the Free Press. And no, Greene never talked about Jewish space lasers. She may be a little nutty but putting words in her mouth isn't journalism. It's mindless prattle. Journalism would be stating that Ilan Omar credibly committed immigration fraud and should be sitting back in Somalia; not sullying our Congress. Put me down as part of the 51 percent that wants immediate mass deportations the minute Biden is sent scurrying away in his Depends.
And if 49% of democrats want mass deportations, no way in hell is the total of Americans wanting the same 51%.
That would make a really good deep dive article if only it could be linked to abortion somehow.
Yes the "party of science" is challenged by simple arithmetic.
I understand the Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project slinging knives at Noem, but I would've expected more about the going's on in another northern state; specifically the calls of "Death to America" in Dearborn. That concerns me a touch more than a dog having to be put down. As a Jew, I'd think that would be top of mind for Bari as well....
On the bright side though, Columbia made an announcement that there would be no repercussions for the leftists occupying the university. Good news for them, until their dream of a socialist workers paradise comes to true, they won't have to worry about their poor decisions affecting their future employment potential.
“victims of sexual violence at the hands of Hamas fighters”. You continue to misspell terrorists. WTF?
911 was carried out by disgruntled Muslims.
🤣
I've been hoping for a roundup like this for some time (I even sent you a note about it). But... I would really like more hard content and a little less snark. Leave that for Nellie on Friday.
This, times 40 gajillion
I'd rather Nellie than Oily doing this. She is getting there; he isn't. She can be funny; he can't.
Taylor Greene is a wing nut but AOC and Omar are ‘leaders’? Come on Freee Press.
I personally would take MTG any day over Ilhan Omar and Talib. MTG may be crass and possibly even racist but at least she's for our country and a proud American. With her it's no different than a family squabble. The other two, they don't even want USA to exist, they're just using the freedom and liberty here to further other countries, specifically other countries against our own. They're utter disgrace.
Seconded.
Anyone notice how all of those green, cookie-cutter tents at these Hamas protests are the same? Who bought in bulk and distributed? LOL
I also noted the videos of the "students" carrying them in already assembled!
These young people would not be capable of erecting it themselves.
https://www.creators.com/read/gary-varvel/04/24/370217
Fergie Chambers. Suzy did a great piece on this dangerous lunatic a few months back.
And Soros funds a lot of the terrorist supporters with Jewish branding, like Bend the Arc.
re: “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” Careful there, Wyatt Earp. We shoot back. Ask our dogs.
re: "I'm a grown man running against a six-year old." Uh, no, Joe Stolen. You're a lifelong grifter, who now in his second childhood wanders about and soils himself, running against the most successful - if irritating - president in anyone's recollection.
re: Jewish space lasers. Sounds hilarious, doesn't it? I don't know lasers' ethnicity, but the KNOWN technology is there to set fires from space using laser energy. Why would anyone do that? Don't know. But then our gub'ment told us that the Clot Shots were safe, ivermectin dangerous, and masks worked. Oh, and that surveillance of Candidate Trump by the Deep State was a conspiracy theory. I won't dismiss anything until I see proof with my own eyes.
re: ADHD. Don't be so flippant. I was the most adamant pooh-pooh-er of that diagnosis until I finally had to come out of denial and admit that one of my children was severely affected. Thirty years later I still don't know whence it came, but it has devastated my son, the only real love of my life.
re: Weinstein. The feminists and Me-Too-ers are going to have to make up their minds: are adult women boss-babes with "agency," people who control their own bodies and are perfectly within their rights to rent them out at considerable profit, including parts in feature films for a little slap-and-tickle, or are they vulnerable little girls who are being taken advantage-of by those Mean Old Men and have to be shepherded through life because they can't take care of themselves? Or maybe what they really want is to have it both ways.
edit: one last thing. The ReBiblicans are going to lose their asses over this abortion thing, and there is a Very Good Reason: they should. Put your emotions aside; put your religion aside; put aside your hatred of feminism, and sit down on the same side of the table with people who disagree with you and work out a solution. And that goes double for the "My body, my choice" people on the other side. You are NOT doing what the people want. Americans are a practical people and are embarrassed by the both of you.
Can you name me one Democrat politician who is willing to compromise on abortion? Up to 9 months? Viability? Surviving abortion? Parental notification? Talk about extremists. Of course none of this is ever highlighted in the press.
And "put your religion aside"? You don't have to go to church to know a baby when you see one.
Sure. I know several. Not everybody is a loony. On either side.
'And "put your religion aside"? You don't have to go to church to know a baby when you see one.'
That is precisely the kind of dogma that stops the problem from being solved.
Please name the Democrat politicians who will compromise on abortion, I'm very interested. Also, please tell me how you would solve the abortion 'problem.'
Development is a continuum - analog, not digital, for the computer/electronic geeks. Two points in the process can be easily identified, though: conception and birth. Those are your boundary conditions. Everything in between is a continuous process - I liken it to the process of converting a blueprint (DNA) into a house; at no point can you say, "This second it's a house (citizen) and gets full protection; one second ago it's not," so you have to make a distinction.
To my eye, you do that by picking a point in the gestation, understanding that it's arbitrary, but as Brandeis famously said, "Sometimes it's more important that a thing be solved than that it be solved RIGHT."
You sit with others and you argue the points, but first and foremost you show respect for each other as decent human beings trying to solve the problem, understanding that everybody will have to give a little. The moment that moral dogma or gods come into the process, it's over and you'd might as well go home.
What is that point in time? Well, that's what you argue over.
Just my technique. Could there be others? Sure, but that one seems the simplest and easiest to implement.
"understanding that everybody will have to give a little" Please tell me one Democrat who will "give a little"? In Nebraska we went from 6 weeks to 12 weeks, and the one Democrat who voted for it was pilloried and driven out of the party within a week (Mike McDonnell).
Loved your post, but. You evidently have learned everything except the Left does not sit down, with anybody.
Thank you, and I’m so sorry for what you and your son have dealt with. My you both find grace and peace.
Ah, yes, the Free Press - republicans murder pets and farm animals but Democrats are at risk of being murdered by the fetuses!
Wiseman - stick to the Royal Family in the British tabloids.
The Free Press will go the way of the New York Times if Bari isn't careful about letting clowns such as Wiseman run amok.
Yes, reading today's Wiseman offering I detected the distinct whiff of Times-ianism. It is creeping into lots of writing at TFP. Were it not for the comments, I am certain I would not stick around as a subscriber.
It's not just Wiseman. Almost all the writers slant left and in the case of Bowles so hard left they become lies.
Tend to agree, though I think with Bowles it is a combination of coastal echo chamber ignorance and smug self-satisfaction, more so than intentional lying.