I felt like Captain Renault in Casablanca.

I, too, was shocked, shocked when I heard about Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, who shot her puppy, Cricket, at point-blank range. Shooter Noem wrote about ending Cricket’s short journey down her yellow brick canine road of life. Besides, in her new book, Noem admitted she “hated that dog.”

Additionally, Shooter Noem also took her family\'s pet goat to the same gravel pit where she shot and killed Cricket. She fired but somehow didn’t end the goat’s life. Not deterred, she reloaded her gun and pulled the trigger. The second shot finished off the family goat. I wonder what her children thought when they asked where their family pets were. How did she explain to her children that their puppy and goat were executed? If I were a child in that family, I’d behave because going to the gravel pit was an infinite timeout punishment.

I spent summers on the dairy farm of my Quaker cousins. They didn’t shoot milking cows, chickens, and cats. This photo of me playing with Green Eyes.

Everyone with a dog or a goat is up in arms regarding Shooter Noem, regardless of how one feels about the Second Amendment. I’ve had three Irish Setters during my life. After graduate school at the University of Edinburgh, the first thing that I did was to get a job and then get my first Ginger, which was six decades ago. My second Ginger and I have been together for the last eight years. If you want something to do with your time this weekend, go to Thus Spoke Ginger.

The following video is of me making bananas flambé as a treat for me.

This is Ginger making a fashion statement.

This is a photo of my version of Pacasso’s Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

Ginger has inflammatory bowel disease. She has been hospitalized at Purdue Veterinary Hospital three times and once spent her time in ICU. I can’t tell you how often we have driven to PVH for additional exploratory exams and checkups. In less than two weeks, we will return to Purdue.

Ginger eats nothing that isn’t prescription food, seven pills daily, and I give her a vitamin B12 injection monthly and refrigerated probiotic power every other day.

Ginger and I have both danced with death twice. Those dances are wake-up calls. We live in the moment and enjoy our journey together.

All of this essay about Ginger and me is merely the backstory. While it is all true, it is merely a bridge to the real story. I haven’t read about other writers discussing the finale of this essay. Forget shooting the dog and goat. They are metaphors for Trump and his acolytes like Noem. Noem wants to be Trump’s vice president. The problem isn’t that Trump and Noem don’t like dogs. They don’t like people who aren’t like them.

Listen to terms that Trump uses, like bloodbath. There will be a bloodbath if he loses the November election. What will happen if Trump is found guilty in the hush money trial. What if Judge Merchan puts him in jail for not compiling with the gag order?

Trump is a loser who doesn’t like losing.

Suppose Trump wins the election. He outlined this game plan on day one. Donald the Dumb will be a dictator. And what about those who don’t buy into his Weltanschauung? In the wake of January 6, those arrested and jailed aren’t prisoners but patriots. He will pardon himself if either of the two federal cases are tried and he is convicted. Trump has also promised to pardon all the patriots.

Donald the Dumb will revamp our government, especially the Justice and Defense Departments. Besides pardoning the insurrectionists, he wants to execute the top generals, starting with the retired Gen. Milley. Trump repeats this comment all the time, “I am Your Justice...I am Your Retribution.”

No, Donald. You are not the macho man that you claim. Trump chickens have come home to roost. You are sitting in a criminal trial where you must shut up and sit for a month of testimony about him. Much of the testimony has been and will be about what former friends in business or bed think of him.