Tim Kaine & Kristi Noem
Sen. Kaine opposes using the National Guard & Kristi Noem shot her own dog.
Okay, we start off another Monday with the usual smattering of news headlines and discuss the events of the day. Two of them jumped out at me this morning from the MSN feed - one about comments by U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) making comments about the National Guard being used to quell anti-Israel protests on college campuses and the other one was about Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) admitting to shooting her own dog. I did not have any idea how much attention that either story would attract. It is kind of interesting that both of them would appear in headlines on the same day - partially because Tim Kaine was a candidate for Vice-President (Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016) AND Kristi Noem is one of the people on the short list to be Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024.
First, anybody who knows me understands that I do not think very highly of Tim Kaine. As a Virginian and a former Richmonder, I saw him go from a mediocre city councilman to a shady mayor and then become a really poor governor. After that, he won a seat in the US Senate, where he is now a swamp creature. He almost became Vice-President during the 2016 election. He is running for re-election this year and - in November - the voters in the commonwealth are going to send him up to DC again OR reject him in favor of a yet unnamed Republican opponent.
That notwithstanding, I have to agree with Tim Kaine 100 percent that deploying National Guard troops on college campuses is not a good idea - especially if they are only seeing mostly peaceful protests. In the cases where things get out of hand, the campus police and officers from the surrounding city should have the resources to address any issues. If there is something they cannot handle, there is always the county sheriff and - in the event of something more serious, state troopers can be requested with a phone call to the governor. I cannot see very many instances that could go beyond that, but the National Guard should only be utilized in a major event such as a huge riot, mass vandalism, looting, etc. Sen. Kaine is correct in referencing the Kent State fiasco more than five decades ago. Props to him today!!
Regarding Gov. Kristi Noem, she’s been in and out of the news lately herself. A few stories about her pertaining to events in her own state, making an appearance with Donald Trump at campaign events and even speculation about her being a choice for Vice-President have a lot of eyes on her. The most recent story, where she has admitted to shooting her 14-month-old dog twenty years ago, has caused a lot of people to turn against her. Has she truly crossed the line? Perhaps she did.
Gov. Noem had a German Wire-haired Pointer, which looked to be a purebred dog in the photo I saw. Those are not typically dogs you see at the pound. They are a type of ‘bird dog’ - from what I understand - and have a lot of energy. Owners need to be sure to give the dog a fair amount of training. Her dog, “Cricket” apparently went after somebody’s chickens (which are birds, by the way) - something that might not be unexpected. She could certainly have rehomed the dog (there are plenty of rescue groups that are breed-specific) or paid for a professional trainer. Quite often, there are not really “bad dogs” - just irresponsible owners. There are plenty of folks out there who are animal lovers, from the extreme left of the spectrum all the way to the far right. She’s probably not going to be able to recover from this. Coldly killing a healthy dog just out of puppyhood won’t score her very many points with anybody.
SOURCE LINKS:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sen-kaine-says-sending-national-guard-to-college-campus-protests-would-be-very-very-bad-idea/ar-AA1nOKgQ?OCID=ansmsnnews11&ocid=socialshare
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/kristi-noem-responds-after-backlash-over-killing-puppy/ar-AA1nP9DF?ocid=socialshare