The Dictatorship
LSU brought a live tiger to its football game. Guess what happened next.
Before the LSU Tigers played the University of Alabama Crimson Tide Saturday night in Baton Rouge, a cage covered by black fabric was wheeled onto the field of Tiger Stadium. A spotlight was aimed at a curtain that lifted to reveal a Bengal tiger lying in a tiny cage and breathing rapidly. At the sound of the stadium’s frenzied applause, the tiger — named Omar Bradley — stood and showed signs of severe distress: pacing, panting and snarling.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry decided to reintroduce a cruel tradition of bringing a live tiger to games, nearly a decade after that tradition had been ended.
Omar had been forced to travel for hours from Florida for that one moment — because Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry decided to reintroduce a cruel tradition of bringing a live tiger to games, nearly a decade after that tradition had rightly been ended.
LSU stopped bringing Mike the Tiger to games in 2016 on the advice of the university’s veterinarians. The university’s current mascot, Mike VII, lives in a 15,000-square-foot enclosure adjacent to the stadium and is kept as a living figurehead to be observed by passersby and on a livestream online. But he isn’t put in a cage and wheeled onto the field as Omar was. Previous generations of Mike the Tiger mascots were even dragged to away games and subjected to pranks that included being kidnapped and even being released to wander dangerously around campus (before being shot by tranquilizers and returned to an enclosure).
Fittingly, there was an appropriate and immediate backlash regarding Omar’s appearance at Tiger Stadium. A poll conducted by the Baton Rouge Advocate found that of 1,500 people surveyed, 90% were against having Omar brought to the game. Clearly, the display of Omar offends current sensibilities about holding wild and exotic animals captive for our entertainment.
Omar is reportedly owned by Mitchel Kalmanson of the Worldwide Exotic Animal Agency in Florida. Places that raise, keep and rent out animals such as tigers are neither sanctuaries nor accredited zoos, but often recklessly operated carnival operations that prioritize profit over animal welfare. The federal violations accumulated by Kalmanson involve multiple incidents in which tigers he owned escaped during performances. The Omar episode also highlights the dangers of private ownership of such animals. Congress sought to curb such ownership with its resoundingly bipartisan passage of the Big Cat Public Safety Act in 2022.
Aside from the obvious safety concerns, the public increasingly cares about the plight of animals in general. The use of live animals as props is both outdated and out of favor. People can see that putting living, sensitive animals — whether birds or buffalobulls or big cats — into environments with bright lights and loud noises causes extreme stress. And keeping animals confined and captive for such uses is a recipe for lives of abject misery. The whole system seeks to profit from disregard for and cruelty to animals.
Keeping animals confined and captive for such uses is a recipe for lives of abject misery.
This year, Kalmanson was cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for failing to provide records showing that animals in his custody were receiving adequate veterinary care.
Landry’s invocation of “tradition” to justify parading Omar in front of screaming fans was bad enough, but it was also upsetting to see Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, a physician and a veterinarian, justify the stunt.
“We had numerous discussions and took every step to ensure this was safe for the tiger. I spent several hours with the tiger last night and you could tell he was comfortable around people and enjoyed the attention,” a statement from Abraham read. “He’s in great health, well cared for by his owners and socially acclimated.”
“As both a veterinarian and medical doctor, I couldn’t think of a better day to literally and figuratively be a tiger.”
That statement showed a total disregard for the conditions that animals need to thrive and live their own autonomous lives. Above all, the officials’ defensive comments suggest that they realized how backward the plan appeared to much of the public.
The confined, unnatural lives of animal mascots are a shadow of what they should be. And to continue to use any animal as a mere symbol without regard for their interests raises the question of who we are as a society, and what kind of people we want to be. That’s the heart of the matter.
No one should resurrect a tradition so demeaning to animals and to ourselves. When we play so whimsically with animals’ lives, or by our silence endorse causing animals such stress and anguish, we all lose — but none more than Omar and countless others like him, caged and wheeled out as a sideshow.
Kitty Block is the president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and the CEO of Humane Society International. Block first joined the HSUS as a legal investigator in 1992. She has advised the White House on trade and the environment, and served multiple elected terms on the International Dolphin Conservation Agreement International Review Panel.
The Dictatorship
Trump wants a Supreme Court do-over on birthright citizenship, but he won’t get one
For months, Donald Trump made clear that he expected the Supreme Court to rule against him on birthright citizenship, and his expectations were correct: Last week, a narrow majority of the high court ruled that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment means what it says.
Hours after the decision came down, the president downplayed the importance of his defeat, saying that he would pursue a legislative solution through Congress, but eight days later, the Republican published a very different kind of message to his social media platform that approached the issue in a more hysterical way. The missive read, in its entirety:
Signs and Billboards are being put up all over our Southern Border, and Mexico, advertising BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, with “Deliveries starting at $4000.” Likewise, similar signs going up all over our Country. Billions of Dollars will be illegally made by this SCAM, with Citizenship going to anyone willing to pay. It will be, by far, the number one way of becoming a citizen, and then the entire family will be allowed to follow. Not sustainable.
NOBODY SAW THIS COMING!!! AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP IS NOT FOR SALE! In fact, that is a crime, and therefore, the Supreme Court’s ruling is wrong. I will be asking for a Rehearing by the United States Supreme Court, IMMEDIATELY. This miscarriage of justice will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Even by Trump standards, this one’s a doozy.
The New York Times reported“The president appeared to be referring to a Fox News report that identified a hospital in Texas that had advertised paying for ‘Birth Packages in South Texas’ on billboards in Mexico. The outlet reported that Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, had ordered an investigation into the hospital, which told Fox News that “marketing materials regarding maternity services are no longer in use due to any unintended misunderstanding.”
Trump apparently took this report and ran with it, inventing various other details, including the amusing idea that cross-border birth tourism will somehow become “the number one way of becoming a citizen” (“by far,” the president added), as opposed to simply being born on U.S. soil to American parents.
But even if such an advertising campaign existed, it wouldn’t generate a rehearing from the Supreme Court. There is no scenario in which justices would say, “Sure, we ruled last week that the unambiguous language of the 14th Amendment means what it says, but if there are billboards going up, that changes everything.”
For good measure, let’s not forget that, according to Trump, his administration has effectively ended illegal border crossings, so as a practical matter, he really shouldn’t be that concerned.
The president’s online rant said he intends to ask for an immediate rehearing. If he orders administration lawyers to go through with such a pointless exercise and they bother to do the paperwork, they should keep their collective expectations low.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
Maine Democrats are scrambling to replace Graham Platner a day after their nominee for U.S. Senate ended his bid following an allegation of sexual assault.
There’s a July 27 deadline set by state law for the party faithful to pick a new standard bearer in a race that is expected to be instrumental when it comes to whether Republicans can keep control of the Senate in this fall’s midterms.
Incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins may be vulnerable, but she has won five straight races for the seat dating back to 1996, and trying to defeat her was likely to carry challenges for Democrats even in the best case scenario.
Their new candidate will have to essentially start from nothing in the race, mend the divisions sown by Platner, introduce (or reintroduce) themselves to the broader electorate and corral support from the ex-candidate’s outsider-minded current and former followers, all in less than four months.
That amounts to a daunting task with massive implications not only for Maine Democrats, but potentially for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s time in the White House. Democrats need to flip at least four GOP-held Senate seats, and maintain all their current ones from several competitive states, to vault themselves into the majority in the midterms. A loss in Maine would be a significant setback.
Maine Democratic Party leaders announced plans “to hold a nominating convention to choose a new nominee,” while stating that “transparency is of the utmost importance.”
Already, several major voices are in the race, including unsuccessful candidate for governor and past Platner supporter Troy Jackson. The former state senate president made his bid clear less than an hour after Platner left the race. One major Bernie Sanders-aligned group, Our Revolution, has quickly rallied around Jackson.
Dan Kleban, co-founder of Maine Beer Company,”https://x.com/mainebeerbrewer/status/2075028234962677872?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet”>is also in the fray, along with former governor candidate Nirav Shah, who worked as Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention during the pandemic. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows who also ran for governor this summer is among other potential contenders.
Platner’s exit also brings difficulty for Collins and Republicans as well, however. Instead of facing a Democratic rival with a string of alarming controversies even before the sexual assault allegationan accustation Platner has denied, Collins instead will have to try to keep her seat in a blue state against someone far less defined, and potentially with far fewer vulnerabilities, in November.
Across the country this year, Democrats have navigated a political environment rife with divisions over how to sway voters in these strange times, with tension between more entrenched party leaders and an energetic and angered left wing often spilling out into the open.
What happens in Maine over the coming weeks may prove to be no different.
Hunter Woodall covers politics for MS NOW. He’s reported on politics and presidential campaigns for The Associated Press and CBS News and reported on Congress for The Minnesota Star Tribune.
It’s been almost three years since Kevin McCarthy became the first sitting House speaker to be ousted in the middle of a congressional sessionbut the California Republican has nevertheless tried to maintain a public profile and has routinely appeared on conservative media to push partisan talking points.
So it wasn’t too surprising to see McCarthy on Fox News on Monday night, responding to the latest sexual assault allegations against Graham Platner, still a candidate for Senate at the time.
As part of an apparent effort to contextualize the scandals surrounding the Maine Democrat, the former GOP leader said, “One thing I know about Republicans is when we had a very bad candidate and found out, we didn’t vote for that person. We walked away.”
Moments later, McCarthy added, “When Matt Gaetz came forward, we got rid of him.”
As is too often the case, the failed former House speaker not only had it backward, but his mistake also offered a timely reminder of details that made him and his party look worse, not better.
Indeed, Gaetz offers a rather extraordinary example. The Justice Department investigated the Florida Republican over allegations of alleged sex trafficking, and while Gaetz repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and the prosecutors’ probe ended without charges, his House GOP colleagues made no effort to “get rid of him” as the scandal intensified.
What’s more, the House Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz “regularly” paid women for sex, had sex with a 17-year-old during his tenure on Capitol Hill and possessed illegal drugs. Nevertheless, as that evidence came together, he remained a GOP member in good standing; he won re-election in 2024 with the Republican Party’s backing; and President Donald Trump thought it would be a good idea to nominate Gaetz to serve as the U.S. attorney general — a nomination endorsed by Republican senators such as South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Alabama’s Tommy Tubervilleeven after they had seen the House Ethics Committee’s findings.
This is what McCarthy cited as an example of the GOP maintaining the highest standards and throwing “very bad candidates” to the curb. That’s ridiculous.
But there’s no reason to stop with Gaetz. Indeed, the list of scandal-plagued Republicans who continued to enjoy the party’s backing long after ugly allegations had reached the public is not short. Trump is obviously the most glaring example, but the list includes other contemporary figures, including Rep. Cory Mills of Florida and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
There’s no reason to limit the list to electoral candidates, either: Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth faced an avalanche of scandals during his confirmation fight early last year, but Senate Republicans decided to ignore the allegations and make him defense secretary anyway.
As the Hegseth fight unfolded, political scientist Jonathan Bernstein published a smart piece that remains relevant: “I do not believe that Republicans or conservatives are any more prone to [scandals] than Democrats. What has changed, however, is the incentive structure. Once upon a time both parties were equally likely to rid themselves of bad actors; now Republicans are far more likely to tolerate, and in some cases even celebrate, behavior they once would have shunned.”
When Democrats learned of serious allegations against then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the party abandoned him. When then-New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez faced serious criminal charges for which he was later convicted, the party abandoned him, too.
In Maine, the Platner example followed the same path, as evidenced by his decision to withdraw from the Maine race after Democratic officials left him with no other choice.
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, an MS NOW legal analyst, explained this week“The contrast here is hard to ignore. Democrats have shown that when credible allegations of sexual misconduct emerge against one of their own, the conversation turns quickly to accountability. Republicans have made a different choice. That’s not a partisan talking point, it’s a difference in how the two parties have approached questions of character and fitness for office over the last 10 years.”
That’s true, whether McCarthy wants to acknowledge it or not.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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