Real people in a real city become props in a lie

An Associated Press article from last Saturday posted on Daily Kos discussed the situation in Springfield, Ohio after the nasty guy claimed Haitian immigrants there were eating pets. A lot of cities have been reshaped by immigrants without attracting notice. But Springfield is now in the spotlight. In a city of about 60,000, the roughly 15,000 Haitian immigrants now make up a quarter of the town. Yes, there have been tensions about newcomers taking jobs (which weren’t being filled), driving up housing costs (though they filled many vacant houses), making traffic worse, and straining city services. Also, the presence of the new residents has led to the downtown being revitalized. Many Haitian residents are now living in fear. Some now consider leaving, which could lower the town’s newfound prosperity. Local officials continue to try to tamp down misinformation. Even Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is helping by offering more law enforcement. A second AP article on Tuesday featured a photo of DeWine in Springfield at a news conference to do his part to denounce the rumors of pet eating. He was also there because the Springfield City Hall, several schools, and the state motor vehicle offices in town were forced to evacuate after receiving bomb threats. So state police will sweep every school building every morning before staff and students arrive. The town canceled its CultureFest that was supposed to start next week. The reason was safety. This past Sunday, Sept. 15, Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press discussed the situation. Alas, the article is for subscribers only. He wrote about how fast a lie can travel. As part of his story he talked about the woman who started the rumor. Seeing how far her rumor spread, how it is being used, and how much pain it is causing, she now deeply regrets starting it. Vance is unrepentant and vowing to continue his lies. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that Vance appeared on CNN’s State of the Union with host Dana Bash. As part of that he said,

If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do.

I ask: Suffering of which American people? Right now the Haitian residents and the town of Springfield as a whole – his constituents because he is one of Ohio’s senators – are suffering. He appears to have no interest in them. Also, this is Vance admitting he’s lying, making stuff up to suit his political narrative, regardless of the pain he’s causing and how well his narrative matches reality (as in not at all). In Sumner’s words Vance said, “he wasn’t going to stop repeating his false narrative just because his words were putting people in danger.” To make the whole situation worse, the nasty guy is planning to visit Springfield “soon.” Mayor Rob Rue said it “could be difficult, a very difficult visit.” Don’t expect honesty. Sumner concluded:

Meanwhile, threats of violence in Springfield continue. That’s what happens when real people in a real city become props in a lie created specifically to stir up hate.

Oliver Willis of Kos wrote:

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance knew that stories about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, stealing and eating domestic pets were untrue before he and his running mate Donald Trump repeatedly amplified the claims, new reporting from The Wall Street Journal has revealed. Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck told the Journal that a staffer for the Ohio senator reached out to him on Sept. 9 and asked if there was any truth to the stories. “I told him no,” Heck said. “There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.” Despite this, Vance did not delete or correct a social media post from that same day...

Kaili Joy Gray of Kos wrote:

Ohio Sen. JD Vance doesn’t care that his racist lies about Haitian immigrants are endangering his own constituents—he’s going to keep telling them anyway. That was his message to supporters at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday when he complained about the media describing the Haitian immigrants in Springfield as legal—which they are.

Part of his logic of branding the Haitians as illegal is that Harris waved a wand to make them legal and that wand is illegal. But Harris isn’t president and could not have waved any wand. Also, that “wand” is legal. It is a part of immigration law known as temporary protected status in which a person won’t be sent home because their home country is in turmoil and thus dangerous. Yesterday Juana Summers of NPR spoke to Garry Pierre-Pierre, founder of the Haitian Times about what Haitians are dealing with in Springfield. Yes, there were tensions in town before the lies began. Some of that was because the most recent immigrants did not understand how to function in America. He and his crew were to hold a town hall meeting with residents and had to cancel because security could not be guaranteed because the town is so tense. There were death threats and bomb threats. Pierre-Pierre described the Haitians:

Well, life for the Haitians in Springfield is that of a newly arrived immigrant. They are building their community. They have stores, you have restaurants, sending their kids to school. They're struggling economically, but they're doing much better if they were in Haiti. And so that's essentially Springfield. That is also Indianapolis, where I now live. That's Columbus, Ohio, with a large community, parts of Alabama - just all across the Midwest and the Deep South, that's what Springfield, Ohio, is.

On Tuesday Sumner posted, in response to a second assassination attempt on the nasty guy, but also about Springfield:

In a social media post on Monday, Trump made it clear that while he wants everyone else to shut up, he intends to only ramp up his own vitriol. In that statement, Trump blamed “the Rhetoric, Lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate,” along with the court cases he is facing, for taking the country to “a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.” “Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” he added. If this seems like the ultimate exercise in hypocrisy, it is. If it seems like an effort to muffle his opponents while he ramps up attacks … yes.

Morgan Stephens of Kos listed seven times the nasty guy’s rhetoric supported or led to political violence. The most recent one is his repeated lying about Springfield. He also mocked the attack on Paul Pelosi. He encouraged the Capitol attack. He villainizes Mexicans. He declared there were “very fine people, on both sides” of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. He has called for violence against counterprotesters at his rallies. Back in 1989 he called for the death penalty for the Central Park Five. Not surprisingly political violence is on the rise. In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted a couple good articles. The first quote is by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, discussing the opinion that since the Springfield story is about immigration it will help the nasty guy. Marshall disagrees this story is helping.

More specifically, is this really about the border and immigration? Sort of. But the story we’re seeing is more one of a small community being terrorized by a campaign that looks desperate and in which the Republican town and county leaders have been begging the Trump campaign to stop and now saying that they’re not even sure they’re going to vote for Trump because they’re so mad about the situation. I think there’s at least as much argument that the story people are seeing is about the chaos and destructiveness of Trump, which most people don’t like.

The second quote is from Adam Serwer of The Atlantic:

The reward that the Haitian community in Springfield has received for doing exactly what Republicans demand of legal immigrants—work, provide for themselves, contribute to their community—is a campaign of slander and intimidation. Contrary to Vance’s insistence that he is creating “stories” about a community to alleviate the suffering of Ohioans, what the Trump campaign is actually doing is invoking that suffering as license to justify violence and harm. This is the most employed rhetorical device of the Trump campaign: point to someone’s suffering and then offer as a solution the application of state violence against a disfavored group, using Americans’ problems as a pretext to harm people they have chosen to hate.

Down in the comments Denise Oliver Velez posted a four minute video by Jason Kravits with many helpers that uses animation and song to explain Project 2025. And does a pretty good job of it. Further down in the comments Hugh Jim Bissell posted something he found (author not named) related to the second assassination attempt.

I don’t think the Secret Service is up for the task at hand. It’s time to switch over to thoughts and prayers. And just in case, I think we should also post a copy of the Ten Commandments at all the golf courses and rally events.