What is worse, this purrfectly daft story, or that so many people believe it?
JD Vance tries to rehabilitate his image with cats in the most bizarre, racist way | The Independent
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What is worse, this purrfectly daft story, or that so many people believe it?
JD Vance tries to rehabilitate his image with cats in the most bizarre, racist way | The Independent
The moreQuote:
Originally Posted by Stavros
Shady JD Vance talks,the more he exposes himself for the racist sexist jackass that he is.
I watched last night's debate and it showed the contrast between the campaigns. Vice President Kamala Harris was well prepared and answered all of the questions the moderators asked her,and all of her answers were very descriptive and detailed and fact checked Donald Trump on every lie he told. The Convicted Felon Donald Trump was unprepared and didn't answer any of the questions,and was rambling about nonsense for over 90 minutes. And also liked when Kamala Harris said the following about Donald Trump: He was fired by 81 million people,World Leaders were laughing at him,Vladimir Putin would eat him for lunch. And the reason why people leave his rallies because they're bored. Those four comments really got under his skin and was very irritated and didn't have a comeback answer,and was annihilated,embarrassed,humiliated and smoked. Now the american people know the reason Donald Trump didn't want too debate Kamala Harris,because he knew that she would expose him for the charlatan and fraud that he is. And when the debate ended,Vice President Kamala Harris Campaign said they were ready for a second debate,meanwhile Donald Trump ran to the Fox Propaganda Channel to whine,bitch and moan about the moderators and ABC. And looking forward to seeing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz taking Shady JD Vance to the woodshed in the Vice Presidental Debate.
I don't get it. Yes, the auto industry has taken a hammering in Michigan, that was always going to be the case with more robotics, the transfer of production out of state even out of country -Reagan after all was the President who 'shipped jobs to Mexico' as JD Vance once complained (his target was Senator Joe Biden)- and I also assume some of the residents of Saginaw moved to where the jobs are, one of the most common features of social life in the USA.
But what do they think Trump is going to go that will bring jobs and local prosperity back? Tariffs? Lower taxes? They had the protest vote in 2016, are so many people stuck in a doom loop that they hear the same old drivel from the Beast and vote the same way again? What did Trump do for them the first time round? I am not saying Harris can transform Saginaw, because their problem is structural not incidental. Or maybe some new industry will save them?
And is it really 'America in decline' when these structural shifts have affected local economies for more than 100 years of capitalism?
Trump’s message of American decline resonates in Michigan - BBC News
Springfield, Ohio, where a Haitian worker can earn $13 dollars an hour in an Amazon warehouse that used to pay locals $21 an hour. Do the maths, then ask what would Trump have done if he were the owner of the business and he found a way to cut costs and increase revenues? Then ask what he will do if President, remove all the Haitian immigrants from the country and re-hire the locals -on $13 an hour? 'They' are not taking locals jobs, 'they' are being given jobs by the local employers, it is called Capitalism, but I think these days the party of Reagan has rejected free market economics for Fascism, an extreme form of Nationalism that replaces markets by 'national' concepts of loyalty based on 'values' and in the American case, the colour of a person's skin; or what Tucker Carlson once called 'Legacy Americans'.
The same kind of rumour mill that ground out anti-Muslim garbage when three girls were murdered in a dance class in the UK in July -note that there was butchery of animals but not in Springfield, and not by a Haitian, and 170 miles away from Springfield. But hey, Trump saw it on the tee-vee so I guess he thinks he knows....
The article is here in full before it is shuttered behind the Telegraph's paywall. There are also photos in the link, including of American Nazis.
Telegraph
Trump’s right, there is a migrant problem in Springfield, Ohio – just not the one he thinks
Trump’s baseless tales of Haitians stealing pets are masking real concerns in the Midwest city
Edward Helmore, in Springfield, Ohio12 September 2024 • 3:32pm
In Springfield, Ohio, a quiet, low-lying city of just under 60,000 people on the banks of the Mad River, migrants are eating pet cats and dogs.
At least that is what the former president of the United States believes.
Donald Trump’s claims during Tuesday’s presidential debate will almost certainly go down as one of his most memorable moments from the campaign – and perhaps even a turning point in the election.
As fanciful as they are (based largely on a medley of social media posts and half-truths), some people in Springfield are not prepared to take the risk.
Alexis House, 21, said locals are now “trying to keep their pets in instead of letting them roam around”.
“Almost everyone believes the rumours because there have been a lot of other problems.”
Some of the problems Alexis refers to are no doubt related to the about 15,000 immigrants who have settled from Haiti over the last three years – drawn here in part by the lure of low-paid jobs at a massive Amazon distribution warehouse – and are reshaping the city.
Tensions with the local community have led to groups of neo-Nazis marching in the streets in recent weeks.
On a visit on Wednesday, The Telegraph found that Trump’s intervention had exacerbated a situation now familiar across the US.
The local police department was forced to clarify that it had “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community”.
Rob Rue, Springfield’s mayor, says the rumours have allowed “national rhetoric to come into our community and divide us”.
Viles Dorsainvil, director of Springfield’s Haitian health and support centre, says that Trump has stirred the pot.
“It’s devastating for the Haitian community in Springfield and it’s created fear for our members, who are scared for their lives and the lives of their kids, especially after what’s been happening in Haiti,” Mr Dorsainvil says.
The Haitian Times reported that some families were keeping their children home from school, while others said they were subject to bullying, assaults and intimidation in front of their homes amid racist rhetoric on social media.
“We are not here to create harm in the community, we are here to work and send money back to our families,” said Mr Dorsainvil. “But we fear this could escalate to violence.”
Rose-Thamar Joseph, who works at the centre, pointed out that the community numbering a quarter of Springfield’s population had come to the city because of the cheap housing and the opportunity to work, often at a nearby Amazon distribution warehouse, an auto parts or metal work plant.
With many coming under work-authorised Temporary Protected Status and others under more opaque circumstances through Mexico, the last thing the community needed or deserved was to be the focus of national political attention.
“They’re in double-trouble here because they’re foreign and they’re black in a closed-minded section of the country that is expanding maybe too quickly,’ said Valerie Hinch, a retired community worker who was dining at the Rose Goute Haitian restaurant in Springfield’s southside.
“My New York friends are sending me messages, ‘Val, be careful of your cats.’ But it’s not funny, it’s sad and ignorant.”
Several Haitian men flatly denied that animals were being taken. “It’s bull----,” said Joy, from Petionville in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, who declined to fully identify himself.
But tensions in Springfield are real, and with them come unwelcome displays. Last month, 12 people carrying swastika flags and rifles while wearing ski masks walked around the downtown area during the Springfield Jazz & Blues Fest.
The pet abduction rumours in Springfield appear to have begun 170 miles away in Canton, where police charged 27-year-old Allexis Ferrell with animal cruelty and disorderly conduct after she allegedly “did torture, kill, and eat a cat in a residential area in front (of) multiple people” on Aug 26.
According to the Associated Press, a post on a private Facebook page, “Springfield Ohio Crime and Information”, read: “Warning to all about our beloved pets & those around us!! My neighbour informed me that her daughter’s friend had lost her cat. She checked pages, kennels, asked around, etc.
“One day she came home from work, as soon as she stepped out of her car, looked towards a neighbour’s house, where Haitians live, & saw her cat hanging from a branch, like you’d do a deer for butchering, & they were carving it up to eat. I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at Snyder Park with the ducks & geese, as I was told that last bit by Rangers & police. Please keep a close eye on these animals.”
Meanwhile, a post on Facebook by a woman named Annie Schlicher also circulated, claiming that someone at her work had heard from a relative who claimed he had seen a Haitian man catch and cut the head off a goose in front of children in a Springfield park.
Pet abduction rumours may be no more than a mask for deeper resentments.
A US government survey estimates that 10 million migrants have crossed the US-Mexico border in the past four years. Just 1 per cent are unable to work, compared to 5 per cent of the indigenous US population owing to drug addiction or disability. Democrats now concede that without that labour force influx and mobility, wage pressures created by unfilled jobs in the absence of migrants would lead to higher inflation.
‘Used to be no problem finding a job’
Rolland Foor and his partner Maggie Crooks, both 52, said they had been living in their SUV – heavily decorated with pro-Trump slogans – since he lost his job as a forklift operator. “Me and my co-workers were told at the end of our shift we were done,” Mr Foor said.
“I was making $21 an hour. The company brought in 15 Haitians and we found out they were taking our jobs. All because of $21 an hour versus $13 an hour. We lost everything due to them coming in here. There used to be no problem finding a job.”
In turn, he said, he knew many people who had lost their homes because landlords had turned out tenants so they could raise the rent by housing migrants on TPS government support. “There’s tons of anger in town,” Mr Foor said.
“I’m always willing to accept migrants coming in just so long as they meet the requirements of becoming a citizen and not just here, kiss my ass, you’ve got citizenship, which I feel is what Joe Biden did,” Ms Crooks added. “He sold us out.”
Carlton Corbin, a security guard, said the government benefits to migrants were not available to Americans. “That’s not right. We can’t get the help they’re getting for just coming over here?
“That’s un-American. Be legit. Don’t come over here and take our resources and then there’s none for people who work their asses off to have it.”
Jessica Hannah, 41, said her discomfort with the newcomers was not racial but cultural. “I get they’re seeking political asylum but, man, we’re getting to the point where it’s so overrun.”
Her partner said he had lost a dog: “I don’t know what happened,” Ms Hannah said. “Really don’t have a clue.”
As it stands, any missing pet in Springfield is likely to be blamed on the Haitians.
“There will be people that believe it, no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is,” John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, said Wednesday. “And they might act on that kind of information, and act on it in a way where somebody could get hurt. So it needs to stop.”
But it is the politicians who are capitalising on the false rumours. One billboard, by Arizona’s Republican Party and depicting four kittens, urges people to “Vote Republican!” and “Eat Less Kittens.”".
Why Springfield believes Trump’s claims migrants are eating their cats (telegraph.co.uk)
Where are the media calls for Donald Trump to step down following his disastrous debate performance?
1. Of all the reasons for Donald Trump to step down, his disastrous debate performance isn't one of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fitzcarraldo
2. If he did drop out, depending on who replaces him, there is a good chance that they will beat Kamala Harris in November. That would be the last thing that some in the media would want to happen.
3. For the last time, Biden was the President of the United States, not your significant other. Stop getting defensive about what happened to him.
Trump isn't going to step down for the same reason Biden didn'tQuote:
Originally Posted by blackchubby38
-Too huge of an ego.
The only way that Trump will step down is if his own party gangs up on him like the Democrats ganged up on Biden to step down.
Biden didn't step down?Quote:
Originally Posted by MrFanti
For me the key aspect of this story, is the one that is not being discussed: how the Republican Party has gone from being a party of Ronald Reagan and Free Markets, or Market Forces if you prefer, to replacing Markets with Government, in effect the opposite of what Reagan wanted. Just as JD Vance has chastised Biden for voting to 'ship jobs to Mexico' without mentioning that it was Reagan's law, so today there is no discussion around a Trump Presidency deciding who gets to work in Springfield, Ohio, and deporting the workers who did not invade the town and demand jobs, but were hired in a free market. And were better for the employers doing what Capitalists have been doing even before George Washington was born: exploiting workers.
So is Trump if he wins going to send goons all round the USA to round up foreign workers, some Asians and Latinos, but mostly Black of course, who will work for $13 an hour rather than $21? Or to put it another, 'we are from the Government, and we are here to tell you who to hire'.
And how much will this economic and social 'structural adjustment' (as the IMF used to call it) cost the taxpayer?
‘They’ve destroyed the place’: Trump repeats racist, anti-immigrant lies | Donald Trump | The Guardian