November 5, 2024

Republicans pounce... on Peanut.

I'm reading "How the Death of a Celebrity Squirrel Became a Republican Rallying Cry/After P’Nut and a raccoon named Fred were taken by wildlife agents and euthanized, Donald Trump and local candidates accused New York Democrats of 'state overreach'" (NYT).

In the frantic last days of an election when candidates are scrabbling for any edge, the death of P’Nut (who also went by Peanut) has been pounced on by some Republicans as something of a fur-covered November surprise.... 
P’Nut’s demise has been mourned by conservative talking heads on television.... “RIP Peanut,” read a post on a Trump campaign’s official TikTok account on Sunday. “Needlessly murdered by Democrat bureaucrats in New York.” The accompanying slide show included an image of Mr. Trump with what presumably is P’Nut’s ghost resting a paw on his shoulder. “We will avenge you on Tuesday at the ballot box.”...

Trump takes whatever material comes his way and uses it, often with surprising creativity — think of all the play around "garbage."

In contrast, Democrats have seemed to stay out of the P’Nut fray. New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, declined a request to comment, as did Vice President Kamala Harris, the presidential candidate.

Just one of many opportunities squandered by Democrats, I'll say. And by the way, we are down to the last few hours for making statements in the category I've been calling pre-postmortem.

The owner of Peanut, Mark Longo, is, we're told "apolitical." He's never voted, he said.

“I am not knowledgeable on everybody’s agenda, I don’t know their policies, and there is a minor bit of me that is concerned,” Mr. Longo said on Monday, his voice growing emotional.... "I don't care if it was the blue side or the red side.... Somebody on this planet is fighting for my animals.”

49 comments:

donald said...

What was the opportunity? The we’re the real fucking nazis, so fuck you we’ll kill who and whatever we want coalition?

Iconochasm said...

New York Democrats won't do anything about violent crazy people attacking women and children on the subways. They aggressively go after any citizen who steps in to protect people. And they can spare 16 armed agents to assassinate an improperly registered squirrel. The squirrel owner's wife is the only person in NY whose immigration status has gotten any scrutiny in years.

The important phrase is "anarcho-tyranny". Make sure you pre-plan which parts of Madison you want to loot if Trump wins.

Danno said...

It is truly amazing how the Ds position themselves on the wrong side of every common sense issue.

ron winkleheimer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ron winkleheimer said...

They could have attempted to display normal human emotion and expressed sympathy. But apparently they are unable to fake that. I'm starting to think maybe that shape changing lizard people theory isn't so far fetched after all.

Rory said...

You can't tell if you own someone if they agree with you on the common sense stuff.

Mark said...

It's nice to see Conservatives finally stand up against law enforcement.
Telling that it was for a squirrel and not a human.

Big Mike said...

You betcha! We have secret training sites in the Colorado Rockies where we Republicans get trained in pouncing. We watch videos of tigers stalking their prey and … POUNCE! Also cougars pouncing on deer and even house cats pouncing on mice. Of course we can’t really pounce unless the Democrats do something stupid, but if they weren’t stupid they wouldn’t be Democrats.

Lucien said...

How does someone at the NYT not know about the “Republicans pounce” cliche and walks right into it? Is this intentional or unintentional self-parody?

Lucien said...

How does someone at the NYT not know about the “Republicans pounce” cliche and walks right into it? Is this intentional or unintentional self-parody?

rhhardin said...

Gutfeld asks why there's no "Peanuts' Law" or "Peanut Alerts" in NY now

rehajm said...

I went to the facility in Jordan. Special forces pouncing taught there…

Iman said...

Pnut and Fred were just some good old boys and they didn’t mean any harm. They were making their way through life the only way they knew how. Unfortunately, this ended up being just a little bit more than the tight-assed, two-faced New York leftwing ruling cabal would allow.

Hassayamper said...

I’m surprised Ann doesn’t have a “Republicans Pounce” tag.

Ann Althouse said...

The NYT went with the "P'Nut" spelling and is sticking to it. It's the second most questionable apostrophe of the week.

If this were the golden age of blogging, I'd start a blog about apostrophes.

wendybar said...

There's a million rats (not counting the Progressives ) in NYC, and they go after the trained squirrel and raccoon??

wendybar said...

GFY!!

tim in vermont said...

"Euthanized" is what you do to beings who are suffering, The perfectly healthy P'Nut was killed by Hochul's death squad.

Kate said...

I saw someone in my MMO gaming zone chat write, somewhat ironically, "Justice for Peanut" in regards to an upcoming PvP battle.

It's not Republicans pouncing, it's everyone. A beloved pet was killed when the state invaded a man's castle. It's a universal rallying cry.

Gospace said...

You obviously haven't been paying attention. It's conservatives who have been leading the fight against no knock middle of the night swat raids. Which in DemoncRAT run cities often enter the wrong house.

Political Junkie said...

Peanut & Fred Forever. Fight Fight Fight.

rhhardin said...

Apostrophe means missing letters; and sometimes aids in parsing, e.g. I saw yesterday "Levi's" as in acronyms.

rhhardin said...

It means good death.

Douger said...

Asked ChatGPT to create a picture of a squirrel in a red MAGA hat and got a cute critter in a red hat but no MAGA. Specially asked for “Trump” on the hat but it refused due to “content restriction policies”. At least it was consistent and refused to write “Harris” for the same reason…. Vote for the sake of all of the Peanuts (P’Nut) out there

Tank said...

"Iconochasm said...

New York Democrats won't do anything about violent crazy people attacking women and children on the subways. They aggressively go after any citizen who steps in to protect people. And they can spare 16 armed agents to assassinate an improperly registered squirrel. The squirrel owner's wife is the only person in NY whose immigration status has gotten any scrutiny in years.

The important phrase is "anarcho-tyranny". "

The concept of anarcho-tyranny is exactly why this story resonated, whether people consciously knew it or not.

William said...

I watched TMZ last night. Their report of the incident was more thorough than the NYT. The squirrel caretaker and his wife are porn performers on Only Fans. They also babysit for some of the local kids. One of the neighbors was concerned that porn performers were babysitting and dropped a dime. The covert purpose of the raid was to check the house to see if there were any kiddie porn videos. The squirrel and the raccoon were unintended casualties of the raid......On TMZ it was reported that the couple involved took care of other wounded animals besides the ill fated Peanut and Fred. There was a brief interview with Longo. He seemed like a decent person, but I'm of the opinion that porn performers should not take care of children. That opinion might be unfair, but there's definitely a red flag.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

If that's your idea of good "Law Enforcement" Mark then it explains a lot about your other subliterate musings on here. Did you ever apologize for lying about me? In September you slandered me saying I "regularly argue that assassination jokes are funny" on this blog. Then you disappeared like a typical leftist flamethrower.

I'm starting to believe you actually might be an attorney, giving your penchant for being a lying weasel. Meanwhile my attorney just made the cover of a magazine this month for being a top litigator. You should meet him!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

One of the great things about Florida is all the free gun ranges and pouncing training!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Where the hell is PETA?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

It's the second most questionable apostrophe of the week.

Our droll host. I really did LOL at that!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I've seen dozens in the last week. You must not be on X or reading Twitchy.

Big Mike said...

We get a huge discount renting out ski lodges in July and August. I hear the Florida facilities are great because they use alligators to show how to pounce from unexpected directions.

John henry said...

"We've got no deal squirrels" - George costanza
https://youtu.be/xPCZtrac-Ss?si=HyzvtEhCeabHb-0S

John Henry

wendybar said...

PROGRESSIVES POUNCE.....on white men.


Mark Hemingway
@Heminator
·
Follow
This is insane. Imagine a controversial murder trial in the south where the prosecutor merely refers to the alleged killer as "the black man."
Byron York
@ByronYork
Thread from Daniel Penny trial. Prosecutor refers to Penny throughout as ‘the white man.’
10:20 PM · Nov 4, 2024

Iman said...

Mark has had his chipmunk grabbed on a few too many occasions.

planetgeo said...

So, the Sanctuary State raided a Squirrel Sanctuary and terminated a dreamer migrant squirrel?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Reptiles are good for practicing political pounces.

Eva Marie said...

“I don’t care if it was the blue side or the red side.... Somebody on this planet is fighting for my animals.”
BOOM. The guy who doesn’t know anything about politics understands the Trump voter more than all the talking heads in Washington.

RCOCEAN II said...

THe "Peanut" thing was a funny meme. That's all it was.

Gospace said...

So what you're saying is that prosecutors lied to the court to get a search warrant. NYDEC cops aren't trained for that. Totally the wrong law enforcement agency to use.

But it's already been established that Democrats lying to a court to obtain a search warrant will go unpunished. Even if it's to a FISA court to spy on a presidential candidate or the president himself.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Professors get their red ink in 55 gallon drums.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Loudon Wainwright III would have immortalized that little squirrel.

mikee said...

Peanut ain't no Harambe. But letting a pet squirrel bite you should cause death by embarrassment to the person who seized that Critter and got bit by it.

Tom T. said...

The larger point here is that if the Harris people are too dull and rigid to respond to campaign opportunities (McDonald's, Rogan, Peanut), then they wouldn't be able to respond well to unexpected world events if they're in power.

PJ said...

"Euthanized" is what you do to beings who are suffering, The perfectly healthy P'Nut was killed by Hochul's death squad.

Deplatformed with extreme prejudice?

MartyH said...

The Washington zoo put down Kamala the elephant to end her misery. The only more potent omen would have been if Kamala were a donkey.

Jupiter said...

To the Democrats, it is common sense that anyone who opposes you must be punished.

Yancey Ward said...

Longo would be smart to not say anything political- were he to take a political stance on this the state of New York would definitely come down hard on him and send him to prison for the two animals that once lived in his home. I imagine he was warned by state authorities to keep his yap shut.

Yancey Ward said...

Ah, now it makes more sense. It did seem odd to me that it was a full ransack 5-hour search of the home for a couple of animals.