#are you going to believe Haitians and Springfield residents or are you going to believe pundits in Washington

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

sorry but if you immediately disbelieved that the Haitian immigrants were eating the cats and dogs of the people who live in Springfield, you’re too “educated” for your own good. you’re too “empathetic” for your own good.

Haiti is the poorest, most sociopolitically unstable country in the Western hemisphere. they are not “just like us” over there. plenty of third-world countries have eaten cats and dogs merely as a matter of cultural significance, no poverty necessary.

of bloody course they were eating the cats and dogs in Springfield.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

Donald Trump doesn’t care that his lie accusing Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio of eating people’s pets is causing a spike in anti-immigrant hate incidents in the area or was the reason for a bomb threats Thursday morning targeting the local government and local schools on Friday. It also doesn’t matter if you fact check Trump on this BS claim. This is not about the truth. Nobody—I mean nobody—understands what animates, radicalizes and incites his base to vote, make threats and commit violence more than Trump. That is why he is targeting both Black people and immigrants with his lies. This is racism for a purpose.  He gets that with one lie, he is targeting two communities that MAGA hates: Blacks and immigrants.  

As we all recall, Trump--as President--slammed the idea of accepting more immigrants from Haiti and Africa calling them “shithole countries.” Instead, Trump stated he wanted more people coming in from places like Norway aka white people. Trump’s base loved that. That is why during the debate Tuesday, Trump repeatedly fear-mongered about non-white people coming over the border, declaring, “What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country.” He then added the now infamous line, “In Springfield, they're eating the dogs…they're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there.”

ABC News co-moderator David Muir instantly fact checked Trump saying “ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports” of any animals being treated that way by immigrants. But Trump remained defiant, saying, “But the people on television say their dog was eaten by the people that went there.” When Muir factchecked Trump again, he then offered this ominous line, “We'll find out.”  Trump’s lie at the debate about Haitian immigrants was something his base has been worked up about for days—as Trump knows. The first prominent right winger to amplify the lie was Trump’s close ally Charlie Kirk—who has a history of making racist comments about Blacks--posting just days before the debate on Twitter that “residents of Springfield, OH are reporting that Haitians are eating their family pets.” His post was viewed more than 4 million times.

Trump’s son, Donald Jr. then amplified the lie on social media that Black migrants were kidnapping and eating people’s cats and dogs. Next Elon Musk -the owner of Twitter and vocal Trump backer--did the same. That got the attention of the Trump campaign.  If the MAGA base believes/loves the claim Black immigrants are such savages that they are eating people’s pets, they were going to join.  That is why on Monday, Trump’s running mate JD Vance claimed in his post viewed more than 10 million times that “reports now show people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.” A short time later on Monday, as the NY Times reported, the Trump campaign did a massive email blast to their supporters quoting the lie about the Black immigrants.

[...] In reality, Springfield residents have overall been welcoming to the Haitian immigrants to their community over the past four years.  Jamie McGregor the head of McGregor Metal, a family-owned business in Springfield, told The New York Times how it was lacking workers after it had invested to increase production before "the Haitians were there to fill those positions." Joe Ruck, a co-owner of Champion City Cuts Barber Shop, told USA Today that Haitian immigrants are working the jobs no one else wanted. But Trump’s lies have embolden the haters in Springfield. As Newsweek documented, there has now been a surge in vile comments directed online and in person against Springfield’s Haitian community. A 19-year-old, who graduated from Springfield High School and now works at an Amazon warehouse said he has been called a "dirty Haitian" and an "illegal."   

[...] Despite many officials warning that Trump’s lie will lead to violence against the Haitian community or Blacks in general, he refuses to stop. On Thursday night in the midst of this backlash and after the bomb threats, Trump again repeated the lie to his supporters at a rally in Arizona, telling them “20,000 illegal Haitian immigrants have descended on a town of 58,000 people, destroying their way of life.” (The Haitians in Springfield are in the US legally.) The convicted felon added the lie that these migrants are “walking off with their pets.” And earlier on Thursday, Trump posted five digitally doctored photos on social media of himself saving pets from migrants—including the racist image at the top of this article where Trump is saving a white cat from angry Black people.

Dean Obeidallah’s column on the Springfield Cat-Eating Hoax is spot-on. Donald Trump, JD Vance, and the right-wing media’s racist and xenophobic scapegoating of Haitian migrants has led to bomb threats and a rise in anti-immigrant hatred in Springfield, Ohio.

[weevil-mastermind]

You’re right. We should look at things in their proper context. What follows is very important context for what the moderator said:

J. D. Vance has spent months railing against “illegal” immigrants from Haiti in Springfield, Ohio. Recently, he claimed that they’re eating people’s pets. (They are not, and even after he learned the story was false he continued to spread it. The best proof his team could come up with was the police report of a woman who found her cat alive and conspicuously not eaten by Haitians a few days later.) He claimed they were “dumped” in the community by Joe Biden, when in reality the large influx of Haitians in the town is because a bunch were recruited by local companies and news of available jobs spread by word of mouth. He claimed that the Haitians were spreading disease and increasing disease rates in the county. The disease rate in this county is actually decreasing. (“Vance has also added to his claims about Haitians, saying on social media that communicable diseases have been on the rise in Springfield because of the Haitian migration… Information from the county health department, however, shows a decrease in infectious disease cases countywide, with 1,370 reported in 2023—the lowest since 2015.” https://www.wsj.com/us-news/springfield-ohio-pet-eating-claims-haitian-migrants-04598d48 The Wall Street Journal is a conservative paper too!)

He claimed that a Haitian immigrants murdered a child named Aiden Clark. In reality, the boy died in a car crash. One of the drivers was from Haiti, but most people would consider leaving out the fact that he died in a car crash to be dishonest. As you say, we shouldn’t omit key details to twist the narrative, but that is exactly what Vance did. Aiden Clark’s grieving father has begged Vance to stop exploiting his son’s death just to demonize Haitians, yet Vance continues to do so.

The Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, may not be voting citizens yet, but they are still residents of Ohio, and this means they are Vance’s constituents. They are the constituents he is supposed to serve and he is lying about them for political gain. To achieve power. Since Trump and Vance started lying about Springfield, the community has had to deal with many bomb threats. Haitians describe living in fear in interviews. These are his constituents, his own fellow human beings, and he made their lives hell in the name of power.

All of this is very important context for these screenshots.

The moderators pointing out that the Haitian illegal immigrants that J. D. Vance has spent months lying about aren’t actually here illegally is the bare minimum. They should be going much farther to set the record straight.

There was a time when I was willing to engage in good faith with J. D. Vance, even if I strongly disagreed with nearly everything he believes. (I actually read his book several years ago.) After this debacle with the Haitians, I can no longer do so. It is clear that J. D. Vance is not acting in good faith. He is a serial liar like his boss and should be treated as such.

However, I am willing to engage with you in good faith, so if there are longer video clips than the ones I saw on social media, and you believe those change the meaning of this exchange, please share them with me. (Alternatively, the timestamp in the full debate where this exchange occurred.) You claim the moderators were spewing lies and J. D. Vance corrected them. What lies are you referring to?

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

September 17, 2024

TRUMP EATS DOG. FOR REAL?

Hey Wilson, did you see the thing on the web that Donald Trump eats dog. People are talking about it. Some heard he has a kennel at Mar-A-Lago and every once in a while he gets a hankerin' for dog and sends his chef out with a meat clever. Insiders say he still loves Big Macs. (They stick to the wall better.) There are any number of good recipes for dog. One, said to be Trump's favorite, is dog Kibbeh made with ground dog (preferably retriever or poodle), cracked wheat and onions. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice to taste. Other favorites include roast leg of dog; grilled dog chops; and dog tacos. (Find more delicious dog recipes at donaldjtrump.com) Of course, dog is a favorite in China, South Korea (no dogs in North Korea, they've already been eaten), the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Interestingly, dog is not on menus in Haiti, despite comments by Trump in his Sept. 10 debate with Kamala Harris. The former president said pets are disappearing in Springfield, Ohio. The Haitian immigrants “are eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of people...” Of course when Trump eats dog he's not eating someone's pet. His people get them from the rescue shelter. Bon appétit!

TOP TEN MISPERCEPTIONS BY THE UTAH LEGISLATURE

1 – Voters are just plain stupid

2 – Judges are just plain insipid

3 – Secret government is the best government

4 – Trump won the debate — except for that little pets-on-a-plate thing

5 – Our air is as pure as we are

6 – More freeways means less traffic congestion

7 – Books teach kids to be perverts

8 – We manage lands better than the feds who insist on regulations

9 – Amendment D is good voters — ignorance is bliss

10 – The Great Salt Lake doesn't need our help — God has it covered

BOMB THREATS: AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE

Bowling used to be one of America's favorite pastimes, but new data reveals that has been overtaken by folks who rather than rolling for strikes and spares are now calling in bomb threats. The new hobby is just exploding — no pun intended. You remember back in the crazy days when once in a blue moon some cowardly sonofabitch would call in a bomb threat. Well now right wing-bomb threats are like bugs on stink. Death threats are now as much a part of America as bad drivers, long lines and political polls. Remember Christine Blasey Ford who blew the whistle on Brett Kavanaugh at his supreme court confirmation hearing. She got so many threats that she had to move three times, get plastic surgery and have her fingertips removed. Lucky for her she wasn't caught making shish kabob with her neighbor's chihuahua. Enter J.D. Vance and his felonious daddy Donald Trump. Faster than you can say, pass the ketchup, half of the residents of Springfield, Ohio got bomb threats and they weren't all immigrants. This after the GOP presidential ticket insisted that Haitians were chowing down on everyone's pets. Schools were evacuated, college classes canceled, medical facilities shut down. Bomb threats came in to hospitals, City Hall and various government agencies. Trump and Vance's reply: Not sorry.

Post script — That's going to do it for another frightening week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of scary stuff so you don't have nightmares. Believe it or not the world keeps spinning despite the presidential race. Here are some headlines to prove it:

Missouri water lily holds 142 pounds of sandbags, wins worldwide contest

27-year-old man sentence after enrolling in high school to prey on teens

Mayflies are sending warnings about urban wildfires

A geomagnetic storm is headed to Earth

Even after having their tubes tied, some women get pregnant

Young people worldwide are drinking more sugary beverages

Brazilian politician upends debate by hitting opponent with chair

Sterilizations among women increased after Roe was overturned

Tito Jackson, Jackson 5 singer and guitarist, dies at 70

Blood Red Is the new Barbie Pink

As you know Wilson, here at Smart Bomb we've eaten our share of crow. And we've seen it rain cats and dogs — but we've never eaten any of them. You'd have to be a real dog to spread a mean-ass lie about people eating their neighbor's pets. Wilson, you and they guys in the band must have a little something for those great patriots, Messrs. Trump and Vance:

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog Cryin' all the time You ain't nothin' but a hound dog Cryin' all the time Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit And you ain't no friend of mine When they said you was high-classed Well, that was just a lie When they said you was high-classed Well, that was just a lie You ain't never caught a rabbit And you ain't no friend of mine You ain't nothin' but a hound dog Cryin' all the time You ain't nothin' but a hound dog Cryin' all the time Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit And you ain't no friend of mine When they said you was high-classed Well, that was just a lie When they said you was high-classed Well, that was just a lie Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit And you ain't no friend of mine

(Hound Dog — Elvis Presley; originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton)

[justiceheartwatcher]

Let’s do a REAL fact-check on Trump. Are Haitians killing, eating animals in Springfield, Ohio?

Last night, Vice President Kamala Harris and the ABC “moderators” put the “bait” into “debate,” ganging up on Trump to bait him into losing his cool. Unfortunately, too often, he went for it, allowing himself to get distracted, angry and defensive and missing many opportunities to turn the focus back where it belonged, on issues of most concern to voters like the economy. 

Meanwhile, Harris was thoroughly prepped and rehearsed for Tuesday’s debate, by a partner in one of the top Democrat law firms no less, and the long hours of preparation showed.  What we’re saying is, she had been carefully coached to lie.

In fact, just as President Biden had done in his debate with former President Donald Trump, she lied throughout the evening, building a straw man out of views Trump doesn’t even hold so she could set fire to it, and furthering the most outrageous and conclusively debunked hoaxes against him.  Project 2025, a national abortion ban, the “bloodbath” hoax, even the Charlottesville “fine people hoax” --- really??  Some of these lies are so long-debunked that they actually have names with the word “hoax” in them. How ignorant must one have to be to find this impressive? Well, at least we know the Democrats’ target audience.

Biden at least had senility as an excuse for repeating all that slander; Kamala must own the label of serial liar.  Last night, there was a whole lotta lyin’ goin’ on. Democrats do this because, as Harry Reid once gloated, it works. Feeling guilty for repeating known lies that get you votes from the gullible is apparently for “suckers and losers.”

Recall that when Kamala was called out once before for lying in a previous debate, she ended up tacitly admitting it, offering the justification that “it was just a debate.”  So, she went onstage last night already on record as believing it’s fine to lie in a debate if that’s how you can win.  She showed us she still believes that.

ABC NEWS, rather than pin her down on issues and call out her many lies, actively helped her get away with her deceptions, never once correcting her while frequently interjecting “fact”-checks on Trump (seven by one media count), many of which turned out to be wrong.  The debate really did turn out to be three-against-one, just as we’d anticipated it would.  (NOTE:  Still, that’s all the more reason for the scattershot Trump we saw last night to have been more focused and better prepared and rested, instead of winging it.  He had to know they’d all be aligned against him.)

Numerous instances of ABC’s shameful behavior are detailed elsewhere in today’s newsletter, but here we’d like to focus on Trump’s allegation that Haitian immigrants had overwhelmed the small town of Springfield, Ohio, to such an extent that they were stealing residents’ pets and tame ducks in the park to use as food.

“In Springfield,” Trump said, “they’re eating the dogs --- the people that came in, they’re eating the cats.  They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”  (Kamala is laughing at this.)  “And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

https://rumble.com/v5egx2r-donald-trump-in-springfield-theyre-eating-the-dogs-the-people-that-came-in.html

The debate threatened to go off the rails when Trump brought this up.  The moderators’ (and Kamala’s) over-the-top reaction suggested that only a crackpot would actually “go there.”  Why, the story is so wild, it couldn’t possibly be true!

But, sadly, life in 2024 is so increasingly bizarre that this is not at all hard to believe.  When moderator David Muir --- whose own “ABC World News Tonight” news stories on Trump run 93 percent negative --- jumped in quickly to “fact”-check President Trump on this, it didn’t go well.  “...You bring up Springfield, Ohio,” Muir said to Trump.  “And ABC NEWS did reach out to the city manager there.  He told us, ‘There have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”  Trump said he’d seen people on television claiming their pets had been taken and used for food.  (And, yes, they have claimed this.)

“So, maybe [the city manager] said that, and maybe that’s a good thing to say for a city manager,” Trump responded.  This makes sense, as what city manager would WANT to admit such a horrifying thing about his town?

“I’m not taking this from television,” Muir said.  “I’m taking it from the city manager.”  But Trump remained insistent.  Kamala, in the split screen, was wearing an amused, faux-bewildered face intended to communicate that Trump must be nuts.

https://rumble.com/v5egwhd-moderator-tries-to-fact-check-trump-and-it-instantly-blows-up-in-his-face.html?e9s=src_v1_upp

Side note:  the one who really might be crazy is California Rep. Eric Swalwell, who had already tried to make fun of this story and ended up just looking stupid.

https://rumble.com/v5efb9h-eric-swalwell-has-a-full-blown-meltdown-about-cat-memes...what-in-the-hell-.html

And as long as we’re having a little fun, here’s an example of that great American entrepreneurial spirit…

https://shop.thelibertydaily.com/products/make-cats-safe-again-t-shirt

Springfield, Ohio, is a “bedroom community,” quite blue politically, of 60,000 inhabitants located on the outskirts of Dayton and Columbus.  For the past few years, it has done its best to absorb about 20,000 Haitian immigrants and somehow handle the resulting chaos.  Police and city leaders have denied the recent wild stories coming out of Springfield, notably the reports that immigrants are catching and killing pets and tame ducks for food.  But from THE FEDERALIST, here’s a two-week-old police report with audio from a witness saying, “They all had geese in their hands.”

https://thefederalist.com/2024/09/10/exclusive-police-audio-report-confirm-haitian-goose-hunting-in-ohio-they-all-had-geese-in-their-hands/

There were two men and two women, each carrying a single goose.  As Tristan Justice writes, “Testimonies from Springfield residents at a recent city commission meeting record neighbors reporting shocking details of migrant behavior, from outright harassment to allegedly gruesome executions of local wildlife in public spaces.”  A Springfield resident named Anthony Harris complained to city officials that “they’re in the park, grabbing up ducks by the neck, and cutting their head off and walking off with them.  They’re eating them.”

The local police have said it’s incorrect to claim Haitians are “catching, killing, and eating house pets.”  But it’s hard to believe them when they’re also denying emphatic reports from residents of immigrants engaging in other illegal activities on their property such as squatting and littering.  Springfield Deputy Director of Public Safety and Operations Jason Via told NPR, “I think it’s sad that some people are using this as an opportunity to spread hate or spread fear.”  Sounds like a reason to deny the scary truth.

Trump running mate Sen. J. D. Vance, who grew up about 50 miles away from Springfield, says he posted on X that Haitians in the town were eating pets after “a high volume of complaints” from residents came to his office.  Oh, and PJ MEDIA has a picture posted on X of an alleged Haitian immigrant walking down a Springfield residential street, holding a big dead goose.  That might not be enough evidence for ABC NEWS debate moderators, but it seems pretty persuasive to us.

https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2024/09/10/haitians-are-not-killing-pets-in-springfield-ohio-its-what-else-theyre-doing-thats-the-problem-n4932390

Of course, lost in this discussion during the debate was the real issue: the impact this influx of immigrants is having on the people who live in Springfield and the enormous strain on city services, a problem cities across America are suffering because of the Biden-Harris open border.  People are confronted with threatening behavior on their own property, they see and hear about what’s happening to the geese in the park, perhaps their dogs and cats go missing, and they feel just as unsafe as the animals are.  Some are quite frightened. 

“Look at me,” said one fragile, 95-pound woman who was complaining of daily threats and harassment by Haitian men squatting on her own property.  “I couldn’t defend myself if I had to.  I don’t understand what you expect of us as citizens.  Who’s protecting us if we’re protecting them?  Who’s protecting me?”

The phone call about the geese was placed on August 26, which was before Springfield suddenly became nationally known as a center of the immigration crisis.

As Becca Lower at REDSTATE put it, both Kamala and the ABC moderators “tried to wave it away as unserious and unconfirmed information.”  But “it’s happening and very real,” Lower said, “for people in Springfield and across the country placed in danger by this administration’s dangerous border policies.”

https://redstate.com/beccalower/2024/09/11/the-federalist-report-man-in-springfield-oh-calls-police-dispatcher-about-4-haitians-carrying-geese-n2179171

Kamala can laugh about people’s pets being killed if she thinks that will help her win, but her time as Border Czar has been cat-astrophic.  Not to sound dog-matic...

https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1833674943491395712

Here’s some must-read background if you’re wondering how Springfield got into this mess.  The Haitians were flown in by the federal government, but it’s what the city asked for...

https://instapundit.com/671649/

https://theothermccain.com/2024/09/10/springfield-gets-what-it-deserves/

Mike Huckabee