#j.d. vance xenophobia

[alwaysbewoke]

[schraubd]

Going Fishing

The wave of terror Donald Trump and J.D. Vance have unleashed upon the Haitian community in Ohio continues to crest. I am by no means the first to observe the similarities between how they are talking about Haitians and how Nazis spoke of Jews at the outset of their rise to power. That's strong language, and yet it is terrifyingly warranted. We are seeing something that is, in fact, not at all unprecedented. But there is a particular aspect of the racism we're seeing here that particularly resonated with me as a Jew -- the frenetic scouring to find anything and everything that "proves" the conspiracies right, or at least justified. In the Ohio case, this reached a comical (if anything about this could be comical) apex when Christopher Rufo offered a bounty to prove the "Haitians in Springfield are eating cats" conspiracy correct and then started crowing over a video of not-Haitians in Toledo grilling chicken. But other examples abound (although at least J.D. Vance had the "decency" to admit he was simply making things up). Far, far too many Republicans response to blatant acts of hatred is to cast far and wide for something that makes the hatred feel palatable. As a reasonably public-facing Jewish professor, I frequently idly wonder if I'll be targeted by some sort of antisemitic attack. Mostly, it doesn't happen. Occasionally, it does; though in my case never in such a fashion that would explode into the public view. But if an "incident" did happen -- someone graffitied my office door, for instance -- I am absolutely sure that a certain cadre of online folk would immediately begin pouring over my collection of writings to find anything they possibly could to explain why I'm a legitimate target. That knowledge -- less that something could happen, and more that if it did I'd be the one scrutinized to hell and back, with the most gimlet eye and uncharitable gaze -- is perhaps what stresses me the most. I do not think I am alone amongst Jews in feeling this way; hyperpoliced at every turn to justify ex post facto a judgment that has been handed down in advance. By all objective accounts, the Haitian community in Springfield has been a boon to an erstwhile struggling city. But they are not universal saints, any more than anyone else is -- if one places them under a powerful enough lens, one will of course be able to find something or someone butting up against the social compact (though not, I'd wager, stealing and eating pets). No group can maintain a perfect record under that sort of scrutiny. And the knowledge that one is under that microscope is just exhausting. It's exhausting right alongside the more direct anxiety and misery of being directly subjected to acts of hate and bigotry. The people responsible for this have no shame, so I won't bother to say they should be ashamed. But no good person should feel anything other than contempt for this latest dose of bigotry. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/NJkLSEa

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Chloe Simon and Reed McMaster at MMFA:

On September 9, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance claimed that Haitian migrants had “abducted and eaten” pets in Springfield, Ohio, seemingly referencing debunked social media rumors.  Though local officials explained that there was no truth to the claim, right-wing media immediately jumped on the bandwagon, amplifying Vance’s allegations and pushing racist narratives about Haitian immigrants.  Some right-wing figures accused Haitian migrants of consuming “cats and ducks” and comparing them to “zombies” and “locusts.” 

JD Vance falsely alleged Haitian migrants are kidnapping and eating people’s pets, continuing long-standing right-wing media attacks on Haitians

JD Vance wrote on X that he had previously raised concerns about “Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio” and “reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country.” While Vance did admit in a subsequent post that “it's possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false,” he doubled down by telling by telling his “fellow patriots” not to “let the crybabies in the media dissuade you” and encouraged them to continue making “cat memes.” [Twitter/X, 9/9/24, 9/10/24, 9/10/24]

The claim Haitian migrants are eating cats seemingly originated from a commentator at a local meeting, Facebook rumors, and a video of a woman accused of eating an animal. The video used as evidence took place in Canton, Ohio, not Springfield, Ohio, and The Guardian reported that the woman did not appear to be a Haitian immigrant. [The Guardian, 9/9/24]

Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck says there is no truth to the story. In a statement to ABC News, Heck said that “in response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.” (Vance had previously cited Heck in a Senate Banking committee meeting about issues Springfield has had with housing for Haitian migrants.) [ABC News, 9/9/24]

The debunked attack on Haitian people is the latest in years’ worth of racist right-wing media tirades against the country. In the aftermath of the deadly 2010 Haiti earthquake, right-wing media said that the “Haitian pact with the devil is historical fact” and that the country was “so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.” Then in 2018, when Trump had labeled Haiti a “shithole country,” Infowars’ Alex Jones backed him up, saying it is a “literal craphole” and a “hellhole.” [Media Matters, 1/14/10, 1/20/10, 1/21/10, 1/12/18; NBC News, 1/11/18] 

Right-wing media gin up anti-Haitian racism with the false "Haitian migrants are eating pets" BS.

[mariacallous]

Forget for a moment all the potential foreign-policy implications of a second Donald Trump presidency. What are the implications for U.S. foreign policy if Trump loses the election, denies its outcome, and tries to overturn it? How would the United States, longtime champion of democracy promotion abroad, be able to continue doing so when it has become clear that so much of the country has so little support for the actual exercise of democracy?

If Trump performs as he did in 2020 and narrowly loses the upcoming election—and polls suggest the race remains a toss-up—the likelihood of a repeat of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and a concerted effort to subvert the outcome again appears high. 

Both Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, have repeatedly refused to say whether they’ll accept the outcome of the election (unless they win). The mechanics for a similar challenge to the election’s outcome, focusing on replacing legitimate state electors with fraudulent electors, which was invented on the fly in late 2020, has been significantly built up. Election experts fear Trump has a more robust plan to overturn the election than his ultimately failed bid after the 2020 vote. And he’s already saying as much, launching broadsides in late October against allegedly fraudulent ballots in Pennsylvania, a critical state for both candidates.

His first effort to subvert a presidential election, culminating in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was harmful enough to the image of the United States as a bastion of democracy. 

“Our soft power, our ability to attract and inspire, has already been damaged by all this—by the threats that Trump made in 2016 that he wouldn’t accept the election unless it went his way, and then what he did in 2020,” said Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

But the Biden administration nevertheless made democracies-versus-authoritarians a guiding principle of its foreign policy during its first years in office, even convening a handful of democracy summits. It seems to be a losing battle. Illiberal and authoritarian regimes are growing in number (most recently in the republic of Georgia), while democracies and freedom are in retreat. Those regimes are banding together, whether through bilateral ties (such as Russia and North Korea), multilateral groupings (the expanded BRICS is taking an anti-Western tilt), or even inside the European Union (Hungary’s prime minister has become Russia’s new Vyacheslav Molotov).

If Trump wins the election outright, fears of another Jan. 6 are moot, and major concerns can revert to issues such as the future of NATO, the fate of Ukraine, and the promised global trade war. But a Trump victory would also severely diminish U.S. democratic credentials, Diamond argued.

“If Trump wins, particularly after the campaign of racism, misogyny, authoritarian threats and intimidation, xenophobia, and so on, if he wins after that, the damage from that compared to the fallout from a contested election will be far greater,” he said.

If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the vote—and takes office next January after a prolonged campaign to delegitimize the election—how much could U.S. democratic credentials suffer on the global stage?

“It’s a very plausible outcome, another period where we look like the problem when it comes to democratic practice,” said Richard Fontaine, chief executive of the Center for a New American Security, a D.C.-based think tank. Fontaine recently published a joint call for the next administration to revitalize democracy promotion to bolster U.S. national security.

“It would make it harder and be a major distraction. The world has become less democratic over the last 15 or so years, and I think that is a more dangerous world than otherwise,” he said. “The degree to which U.S. policy and leadership can influence that direction one way or the other is important for the world, and for our own security.”

For some 80 years, Washington has sought to promote democracy abroad as a way to boost its security and prosperity at home. More democracies generally means a more stable international order, with fewer threats to U.S. prosperity or core interests. The issue has become especially acute as illiberal and authoritarian states attempt to promote an alternative vision of the international order that would have both as its goal and its consequence a weaker United States. Democracy in disarray at home would only blunt that longtime fixture of U.S. diplomacy.

Democracy promotion “is in our DNA, so it should be part of our toolbox and a natural component because of who we are,” said Derek Mitchell, nonresident senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former president of the National Democratic Institute, a nongovernmental organization that promotes democracy globally. Mitchell also just wrote a piece underscoring the importance of democracy promotion.

“More than that, it is, I think, our comparative advantage right now in the defining question of the 21st century: What norms will guide the world in the decades ahead? The question is, are we going to be reaffirming those democratic norms both at home and abroad as something in our interest?” Mitchell said.

That’s why the risk of a repeat of a contested election, coming in a deeply polarized and paralyzed American society, would be problematic in that bigger contest.

“Obviously the brand is degraded, and the autocrats will be able to use what is happening in the United States as a cudgel against America’s pretension—I think real support—for democracy,” Mitchell said.

The other risk from a contested election and a repeat of January 2021 is the power of example. Diamond noted that former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s effort to stay in office after losing in Brazil’s October 2022 election “was completely inspired by what Trump did and even the methods. So it’s not just that our soft power will be damaged by another post-election crisis, it will also have demonstration effects.”

Perhaps concerns over the tarnish left by another messy election are overblown. After all, Woodrow Wilson pledged to make the world “safe for democracy” while championing segregation, and before women’s suffrage was real. Succeeding presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump officials all championed democracy abroad while grappling with democratic deficits at home.

“The United States has always had flaws in its democracy even while maximally promoting democracy and human rights,” Fontaine said.

History suggests that not even overt shows of support for authoritarianism and disdain for democracy can derail that train. Just two years after the first mass Nazi rally in New York City in 1939, Freedom House was created to promote democracy around the globe—the start of a decade that culminated with Roosevelt’s “arsenal of democracy,” the creation of the United Nations, and the birth of the Marshall Plan.

The United States’ own travails with democracy could, in the event of an eventual Harris win and successful inauguration, even give Washington the ability to more effectively promote democracy abroad tempered by the experience. That could make it better able to relate to fragile democracies that struggle against the seemingly never-ending attacks they face, Mitchell said.

“The U.S. struggle only points to how difficult it is,” he said. “Institutions are vitally important—that was the lesson of 2020, and maybe of 2024.”

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

August 6, 2024

SALT LAKE CITY PLANS DRAG QUEEN OLYMPICS

We can't start planning soon enough now that Salt Lake City has secured the 2034 Winter Games. As old timers know when the 2002 Games came to town it was simply amazing. The events, of course, are spectacular, but when a city hosts the Games excitement and fun are off the charts as visitors pour in from around the globe. Salt Lake City has always been a welcoming place. We love immigrants and gays and investment bankers. A special committee is now working to ensure that drag queens not only feel accepted at our Games but will take a prominent role in the festivities. The celebration will make the so-called “Drag Queen Last Supper” at the Paris Olympics look like “Ring Around the Rosie.” Many newcomers may not realize that drag queens played an important role in Utah's history. Brigham Morris Young, one of Brigham Young's sons, was a famous drag performer who was widely known as Madam Pattrini. In the late 1800s drag shows were quite popular and Olympic organizers will focus on the cultural aspects of Utah's history and weave together such things as drag queens and polygamy. Imagine the Opening Ceremony where 26 bearded men on ice skates dressed as Brigham Young's wives welcome the entire world on satellite TV. It just takes your breath away.

LIKE YOUR BLACK JOB?

What is a Black job? The term conjures up all sorts of things, like janitor, maid, dishwasher — doctor, lawyer, engineer, not so much. But Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles was all over it: “I love my Black job,” she said trolling Donald Trump who told the National Association of Black Journalists that undocumented immigrants are stealing “Black jobs” and it's all the fault of Kamala Harris. Black jobs? You're right Wilson, it recalls Jim Crow and segregation — nasty stuff. Willy Horton, where have you gone — Trump campaign headquarters? Down in MAGAville they're talking back to the TV. See there, Irene, there's millions of them illegal Mexicans coming in here and taking all them Black jobs and then what's all them Black people going to do. Them people are going to want our White jobs. It is, of course, Trump Theater: chaos, racism, xenophobia with more than a dash of B.S. tossed in for flavor. No surprise, the Orange Man's performance got a lot of headlines and airtime — success! Who said, “There's no such thing as bad publicity.” Step right up to the big tent, see the famous bearded lady with your own eyes and Kamala Harris the Indian woman who is not Black. Hey MAGA World, it's an us versus them world, so don't forget who “us” is.

“THEY'RE JUST WEIRD” — DON AND J.D. GET TATTOOED

OK Wilson, you and the guys in the band have known your share of weird people. So check this out — everyone is picking up on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz analysis of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance that they're just “weird.” It does have a ring to it. Since 2015, pundits and politicians have tried to label Trump. Books, news stories and magazines have labored without success to come to grips with the inexplicable Orange Man and his comb-over Teflon. Well, Walz did it in just a word — “weird.” It was one of those “the-emperor-has-no-clothes” moments when suddenly everything comes into focus. Trump is nasty, dishonest, creepy, self-important and on and on. But nothing sticks to his angry jowls like “weird.” The moniker is so right-on that Trump has repeatedly denied it, insisting that he and Vance “are not weird people.” Right, and Barack Obama was born in Kenya. In something of a schoolyard comeback the former president, referring to Democrats, sneered,“they are the weird ones.” Vance, Trump's new Mini-Me, put the icing on the cake when he labeled women without kids as “childless cat ladies.” Ooh baby! That's a bell that doesn't un-ring — he alienated women and cat lovers all in one swipe. Team Trump is on a roll — if the weird shoe fits...

Post script — That's going to do it for another scorching week in Hot Lake City, where the staff here at Smart Bomb keeps track of Mount Rushmore, so you don't have to. Hey Wilson, remember when Republicans wanted to put Ronald Reagan on Mount Rushmore as well as the $5 bill. The Utah congressional delegation just couldn't shut up about it. Well maybe it's a good thing that didn't succeed. Today's GOP, aka MAGA Mob, wants Donald Trump on Mount Rushmore and thinks Ronald Reagan was some kind of elitist who hated Russia and favored clean air. Times change. Ronald Who? South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is a big proponent of The Donald on Mount Rushmore and even gave 45 a miniature Mount Rushmore with his image next to Washington and Jefferson. But then she wrote about shooting her puppy because... well, because he was acting like a Democrat. Since then, we haven't heard much about Trump's likeness carved into a mountain, but as someone once said: It ain't over 'till it's over. If he gets reelected we may get his picture on all of our currency. And what about a nice monument near the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. A huge Donald Trump carved in stone watching TV and eating a Big Mac. MAGA World would just love it.

It's HOT Wilson and it's going to stay that way. It's so hot you can fry an egg on the hood of your car. It's so hot that people are losing their tans 'cause they can't go outside. Well, of course, you can go out at night. It won't exactly be cool but it is survivable. So you and the guys in the band know what to do, so hit it, Wilson:

Hot town, summer in the city Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty Been down, isn't it a pity? Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city All around, people looking half dead Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head But at night it's a different world Go out and find a girl Come on, come on and dance all night Despite the heat it'll be all right And babe, don't you know it's a pity That the days can't be like the nights In the summer, in the city In the summer, in the city Cool town, evening in the city Dressing so fine and looking so pretty Cool cat, looking for a kitty Gonna look in every corner of the city Till I'm wheezing like a bus stop Running up the stairs, gonna meet you on the rooftop But at night it's a different world Go out and find a girl Come on, come on and dance all night Despite the heat it'll be all right And babe, don't you know it's a pity That the days can't be like the nights In the summer, in the city In the summer, in the city

(Summer In the City — Lovin' Spoonful)

[kuramirocket]

For those of you who are unfamiliar, J.D. Vance became a literary darling in 2016 after the publication of “Hillbilly Elegy.”

The book doubles as a libertarian social critique of a “hillbilly” culture that blames everyone but itself for its woes.

It wasn’t just conservatives buying into Vance either.

“Five years ago, Vance was eloquently decoding Donald Trump supporters for liberal elites, while lamenting the rise of Trump himself,” wrote Simon van Zuylen-Wood in a January profile published in the Washington Post Magazine.

Now Vance is running for Senate in Ohio, a state the former president comfortably won in 2016 and 2020, and has desperately tried to walk back his past criticism of Trump.

He has gone full Trump.

“Are you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans?” he asks would-be voters.

Vance then goes on to blame immigrants for all of Ohio’s ills.

It’s worth pointing out that Vance famously recounts in his memoir that his mom would steal her patients’ painkillers while working as a nurse. But sure, let’s blame it on the Mexicans.

So much for the GOP being the party of personal responsibility.

Within hours, the racist video’s opening lines of “Are you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans?” had been clipped by user @lib_crusher. 

Ohio has long been hostile to Mexicans.

Vance currently finds himself in third in the GOP Senate primary race, behind two candidates who got into a shouting match trying to out-MAGA each other.

Vance has publicly debased himself time and time again in hopes that Trump will give him an endorsement that might not come.

Ted Cruz has been trying that strategy for years to no avail.

[fightmeyeats]

Fantasy Racism™ Sure is Pretty White: A Critique of “Carnival Row”

One of the problems with the “politically relevant” fantasy genre is that it frequently offers “representation” and “relevant” critiques of social problems in ways which favor the representation of the oppressions people face, rather than of the people themselves--meaning metaphors which parallel fantasy races to people of color while using a predominantly white cast. Often times this further reifies the unmarked categories of the cultural context the work is produced in (ie whiteness as the dominant & default category), further marginalizes and dehumanizes people of color, and positions white folks as the victims of metaphorical white supremacy. Amazon’s new streaming original Carnival Row is an unfortunately clear example of this continued fetishization of white poverty/desperation/vulnerability at the expense of communities of color. 

Spoilers below. 

While one might rightly critique the “trauma porn” genre and the way that people of color are often brutalized on screen or depicted only as victims of violence in discussions of oppression, with the solidarity and resistance of communities of color erased from dominant narratives, substituting white bodies into these sequences of violence does not offer us a useful subversion. In her book What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, Elizabeth Catte talks about the historical and contemporary use of a particular image of white poverty. The focal example of Catte’s book is J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy (2016) where Vance consistently uses the image of the bad, dependent poor white to reify racist images of poverty and undermine the need for programs and systems to support poor folks--just one example of this is the way he insists that the “welfare queen” is real and implicitly argues that the use of this stereotype to undermine welfare programs is not racist because he has known white welfare queens. Outside of contemporary use, Catte also gives examples such as how in the 1960s “white poverty offered [white people uncomfortable with images of civil rights struggles] an escape--a window into a more recognizable world of suffering” (59), and the quotes Appalachian historian John Alexander Williams comments on the way that, in the displays of Appalachian poverty, “‘the nation took obvious relish in the white skins and blue eyes of the region’s hungry children’” (qtd Catte 82). This obsession with white poverty has little to do with addressing the actual problem; instead, it is a tool used to obscure oppression, resistance, and transformative solutions to these problems. 

Carnival Row offers a discourse on colonialism, racism, and xenophobia intended to mirror the political climate of the real world, namely the violence experienced by refugees and undocumented immigrants. It also attempts to comment on the way that Global North/colonial nations often create or are implicit in the creation of catastrophes which cause Global South/colonized nations and regions to become unsafe and result in refugee migrations, as well as the subsequent way that many times when refugees end up immigrating to the very nations that played a role in the collapse of their homelands, they are met with violence on multiple levels and their traumas are ongoing. In this current moment, this kind of discourse/intervention is “relevant” (I use scare-quotes because while the treatment of refugees in many Global North nations is horrendous in this current moment, this is not a new problem the way it sometimes is imagined) and I’m even willing to concede that there are some things which I think are done well. However--and this is a big however--the choice to make a predominantly white non-human population the metaphorical stand in for real life people who are predominantly of color greatly undermines what the series is attempting to accomplish. The implicit message is that it is easier for general audiences to sympathize with and recognize the personhood in non-human white figures than it is to sympathize with and recognize the personhood in real life people of color who are actively experiencing the violence fictionalized in this series. Furthermore, even as the victims obscure the real role white supremacy plays in xenophobia and the violence experienced by migrants and refugees, it still is a form of trauma porn. The only real difference is that because of the dominant whiteness of the victims, this version of trauma porn allows for the voyeuristic participation in systems of violence wherein many who are passively complicit (or even actively responsible) in the very systems causing violence are able to relate to the victims and experience a sort of cathartic release which allows them to maintain their complicity, feeling “good” that they consumed “politically relevant” content which allowed them to “care” safely, without having to address the reality that they are part of the brutalizers not the brutalized.

One of the ways that the show attempts to somewhat skirt around this problematic of white victimhood is by giving many of the white refugees, namely the main character Vignette (played by British actor/model Cara Delevigne), Irish accents and setting it in a time period which ambiguously mirrors the time before (as Noel Ignatiev puts it) “the Irish became white”. Celtic whiteness is used both in Carnival Row and with the case of Appalachia, and seems to be a particular favorite flavor for the fetization of white poverty. My personal theory is that this is because, when used in this way, the British colonization of Celtic peoples works to simultaneously obscure the racialized realities of both poverty and colonialism--in this fashion, Celtic whiteness is Othered just enough to justify the creation of white victimhood as a fetish object, but still undeniably white enough to connect this victimhood to the universal construction of whiteness. While there is nothing inherently wrong with including Ireland (or Scotland or Wales) in discourses of colonialism/neocolonialism because Ireland and other Celtic lands were and are colonized by the British and this colonization has had a clear and lasting impact on these regions and these peoples, using it as part of the fetishization of white poverty does not further anti-colonial goals, and again is being used to displace and obscure the way racism and white supremacy are central to anti-refugee and anti-immigrant rhetoric, policies, and popular practices.

During the first few episodes, I tentatively imagined myself commenting on the only semi-positive aspect I saw in the show’s use of whiteness: while obscuring metaphors for white-supremacist politics are deployed in many fantasy works, they often position people (humans) of color as being members of the human-supremacist groups which are meant to reflect real life white supremacy, further obscuring the real stakes of the topic being discussed. For the first four episodes, Carnival Row avoids this problematic and gives a representation of the metaphorical anti-immigrant/“pro-Brexit” crowd exclusively through white humans--and bonus points, they can be found in both the political elite and the working class/poor. While the whiteness of fantasy races means that the real life targets of white supremacist violence (people of color) are obscured, at least this allows us to remain clear on who is responsible. That, unfortunately, changes in episode five. One of the major places where we can see this change is in the introduction of Sophie, a woman of color, who takes over her (white) father’s seat in parliament after his death. Sophie gives a speech where she mobilizes her status as a woman of color to further fantasy-racism, stating that her mother had “desert blood” and experienced racism, but that the city overcoming racism and recognizing the value of racial diversity does not apply to the “Critch” because “our differences are more than skin-deep” (ep 5, 34:15). While this is predominantly intended to differentiate real racism (which I guess has been solved?) from Fantasy Racism™, it also serves to undermine the dehumanizing politics of racism which are continuously deployed. It reassures audiences that real life racism can be solved because race is just skin deep and we’re ultimately all pretty similar. This obscures the historical and contemporary claims about “race science” and “racial difference” which often explicitly and implicitly justify racism. While in this present moment “race science” has become a more latent belief--most people laugh at the idea of measuring skulls--everyone with a White™ Facebook friend who's taken a 23-and-Me to prove they’re 0.005% African can speak to continuing beliefs in biological race theory. 

Ultimately, like many other “politically relevant” fantasy works, Carnival Row’s use of a white washed Fantasy Racism™ as a metaphor for the systems of oppression that, in the real world, affect people of color remains highly problematic. In both our personal viewing practices and in our practices of creating and curating stories, we must think critically. Storytelling is a powerful tool in shaping how we perceive and consider reality, so when we choose to tell stories that represent marginalized communities exclusively by their oppressions, and especially when we choose metaphors that participate in the fetishization of white desperation and whitewash these communities we are doing real harm. 

[oselatra]

Taking on trainers

As our legislators return to work this week, they will take up House Bill 1040, preventing athletic trainers from practicing in nonclinical settings and severely restricting what they can do to provide assistance to students.

Taking on trainers

As our legislators return to work this week, they will take up House Bill 1040, preventing athletic trainers from practicing in nonclinical settings and severely restricting what they can do to provide assistance to students.

As someone who has worked in college athletics for the better part of the last 15 years, I have seen up close the fine work that our certified athletic trainers do to keep our student athletes healthy.

However, State Rep. Joe Farrer (R-Austin) apparently does not see the value in the services provided by my colleagues in the athletic training profession. Perhaps, as a physical therapist, he stands to have a personal financial gain due to these restrictions, as the treatment of certain spine injuries and post-surgery rehabilitation — treatments that ATCs are licensed to conduct — would be reserved for off-site physical therapists under this legislation.

In a Dec. 20 story on KARK-TV, Channel 4, Farrer was quoted as saying "some local physical therapists and I have had some issues with some of the athletic trainers in our area. We need to clear up some of these issues."

Perhaps Farrer would like to clear up his conflict of interest in introducing this insidious legislation — if conflicts of interest even bother us anymore. But that is unlikely, as he was apparently "too busy" to discuss this legislation with KFSM-TV, Channel 5, in Fort Smith earlier this week.

Certified athletic trainers not only help students heal from injuries, they help prevent injuries, and in some cases, they save lives. Would the same interventions by athletic trainers that saved the life of a college student athlete in Arkansas be illegal because of Farrer's issues?

Just a few short days ago, the Mississippi State University basketball team's bus was just 200 yards away from a car that flipped in a single-car accident. Riders on the bus pulled the driver from her car, and she was then evaluated by the team's athletic trainer. Would that evaluation be illegal in Arkansas because of Farrer's issues?

The needs of our students are greater than any issues causing Farrer any personal consternation, and frankly, his complete lack of sound judgment in introducing this terrible bill gives me full confidence to say that I trust the talented and competent certified athletic trainers in the state of Arkansas far more than a politician with an axe to grind.

This bill currently sits with the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee in the House. I implore the members of that committee not to let Farrer's issues take precedence over the wellbeing of Arkansas students. Kill this atrocious legislation immediately.

Paul T. Smith

Russellville

The fallacy of deterrence

Last week's article "The 91st Arkansas General Assembly: It's going to be a beast" was, overall, an excellent summary of significant legislation we may expect this year. However, I wish to correct one statement from the article regarding guns on college campuses.

In reviewing circumstances related to the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon (2015), the article incorrectly stated that UCC banned guns in violation of Oregon state law. In fact, individuals (including students) with concealed handgun permits were allowed to carry their weapons on the UCC campus and in classrooms. This fact was reported by Politifact in November 2015 when a Florida state senator declared UCC was a gun-free zone).

UCC was anything but a gun-free zone. It was known at the time of the shooting that many students had concealed handgun licenses and were carrying concealed handguns on campus. At least one of those students spoke to news media immediately following the shooting.

We are told that permitting concealed handguns on college campuses will deter mass shooters. UCC proves the fallacy of the "deterrence" argument. Knowing there were armed civilians on the UCC campus, the shooter attacked anyway. Perhaps he was hoping for a firefight that would create additional casualties? We may never know, or we may learn more when the final report of the shooting is released later this year.

Stephen Boss

Arkansans Against Guns On Campus

Fayetteville

From the web

In response to "The 91st Arkansas General Assembly: It's going to be a beast":

2017 will be the first year where we really find out exactly how heartless some of our elected legislators can actually be. We had better buckle up, because we're in for a long, bumpy ride here in Darkansas!

RYD

Thank you to the Arkansas Times for organizing this important information. Thank you Rep. Greg Leding for providing the public with a plan of action. There are still a few legislators with common sense and decent morals. I know their names. I really believe we need to hire an exorcist for the Arkansas State Legislature. They are being socially harmful, irresponsible, unreasonable, irrational, counterproductive, discriminatory, overreaching and they are hurting the state economically by driving away business and tourists. Why do they hate the people of Arkansas? Because we get in the way of the Arkansas Legislature's true God: power and greed. The political machines have offered them a lot of easy money to go down in the history books as unpatriotic traitors to their state and their country.

ShineonLibby

In response to Ernest Dumas' Jan. 12 column, "Glass houses":

The USA has meddled in the attempts of people in numerous other countries to govern themselves. That other countries and governments, and corporations spanning all the above, might use psy-ops to influence our governance should be understood. However, we should hold our leaders accountable for making false, perhaps dishonest, perhaps misinformed (lying or just dumb) statements to us, and we should try to educate an electorate capable of recognizing and responding to such challenges. These are likely to be the nature of future invasions of our borders. The redcoats are coming, via the internet and similar mechanisms, not so much by the boats and planes of yesteryear. I felt much better having a president who demonstrated the capacity to comprehend, understand and work in the nuanced gray areas of modern challenges than I feel looking forward to having a simpleminded bully thumping his chest and not really thinking about anything in particular.

deadseasquirrel

In response to Gene Lyons' Jan. 12 column, "Hillbillies":

I mostly agree with Gene; however, he failed to point out that, in the introduction to the book, J.D. Vance stated that he was a conservative in his political views and was not pretending to present an academic and unbiased viewpoint of his subjects. This book was too personal for that. This explains his tendency to assign some blame to the "hillbillies" for their own predicament. However, that does not diminish his explanation of the failure of government, or why the people are the way they are.

plainjim

Because I put my name on what I write, I have avoided many discussions on race in Arkansas. Perhaps I need to find a pen name, because my experience has been that anyone who contends there isn't hateful and two-faced racism from border to border in this state has lived a sheltered life. Regarding the book, I don't understand the empathy for the racist views. Call it as you see it, if you're gonna write about it.

Rick Fahr

I've seen Mr. Vance interviewed once about his alleged "memoir."

It took even the likes of me about three minutes to determine that he is a complete and utter fraud; he's had about as "hardscrabble" a life as Ivanka Trump and, since she's at least nominally in business, she probably works a lot harder.

Of course, you may want to buy this big pile of crap for investment purposes; I hear that a copy of Clifford Irving's bio of Howard Hughes commands a high price on eBay these days.

Joe Quimby

My problem with the haters is that they have pretty much destroyed the concept of "common good," and are against anything that would improve the common good because it would help people they don't approve of. Doesn't matter why they don't approve, they're just against helping those "others" even if it would also help them. And "others" is most easily defined by race. Because it's so easy.

Vance at least acknowledges that he doesn't understand why more people don't escape the same way he has, which, in my mind, makes him a whole lot less smart than what he thinks he is.

Vanessa

On the issue of hate: Many ignored voters felt "hated" by the press and Clintonites — constantly referred to as "uneducated" — as if formal schooling is the only definition of "educated" — and constantly lumped together as racists, xenophobia-ites, etc., and totally ignored by the Democrats. Vladimir Putin didn't stop Clinton from going to Wisconsin. The self-righteousness of the press was truly ridiculous and still is. Liberal used to mean caring for all the people — whatever happened to that concept? Hubris.

Investigator of both sides

Taking on trainers

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alicia Victoria Lozano at NBC:

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The woman behind an early Facebook post spreading a harmful and baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating local pets that helped thrust a small Ohio city into the national spotlight says she had no firsthand knowledge of any such incident and is now filled with regret and fear as a result of the ensuing fallout. “It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday. Lee recently posted on Facebook about a neighbor’s cat that went missing, adding that the neighbor told Lee she thought the cat was the victim of an attack by her Haitian neighbors.

Newsguard, a media watchdog that monitors for misinformation online, found that Lee had been among the first people to publish a post to social media about the rumor, screenshots of which circulated online. The neighbor, Kimberly Newton, said she heard about the attack from a third party, NewsGuard reported.  Newton told Newsguard that Lee’s Facebook post misstated her story, and that the owner of the missing cat was “an acquaintance of a friend” rather than her daughter’s friend. Newton could not be reached for comment. Lee said she had no idea the post would become part of a rumor mill that would spiral into the national consciousness. She has since deleted the Facebook post. 

Other posts have also contributed to the false allegations, including a photo of a man holding a dead goose that was taken in Columbus, Ohio, but was spread by some online as evidence of the claims about Springfield. Graphic video of a woman who allegedly killed and tried to eat a cat was also found not to have originated in Springfield but in Canton, Ohio, and does not have any connection to the Haitian community. Local police and city officials have repeatedly said there is no evidence of such crimes in Springfield, but that hasn’t stopped the lies from spreading across the country and igniting a national frenzy that landed on the presidential debate stage this week. Former President Donald Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who was born less than an hour away from Springfield, have repeated the baseless allegations. Lee said she never imagined her post would become fodder for conspiracy theories and hate. “I’m not a racist,” she said through heavy emotion, adding that her daughter is half Black and she herself is mixed race and a member of the LGBTQ community. “Everybody seems to be turning it into that, and that was not my intent.”

Erika Lee, the Facebook poster from Springfield, Ohio who kicked off the bat guano cat-eating hoax that JD Vance, Donald Trump, and the right-wing media ate up, regretted her role in creating the viral racist anti-Haitian attack.

[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.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Markos Moulitsas (kos) at Daily Kos:

Donald Trump had no shortage of potential vice presidential running mates. There were several seemingly serious contenders on the list, including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Trump picked Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio. He was the worst possible choice.  In some ways, VP picks are overrated, rarely making a meaningful dent in the overall dynamics of the race. Usually, they work best when they mobilize the candidate’s base. Vance isn’t the worst pick in that regard, having made a hard-right turn in recent years that should delight the MAGA faithful. 

But this isn’t a normal election year. Vice presidential picks can serve a useful purpose as attack dogs when the presidential candidate needs to stay above the fray. Dick Cheney comes to mind, or Sarah Palin. The least effective running mates are those who have with zero credibility with the base, like Hillary Clinton’s pick, Sen. Tim Kaine.  Trump doesn’t need an attack dog. No one will mobilize the MAGA base more effectively than him, and he’s not shy about what he says. Trump isn’t staying above any fray.  Other VP picks help fill a hole in a presidential candidate’s resume, such as when Joe Biden shored up Barack Obama’s perceived lack of foreign policy experience (a thing no voter ever cared about, but in those days, the David Broders of the Capitol Hill commentariat had to be appeased). 

[...] All of those picks could’ve served Trump well strategically. Instead, he picked Vance, who once called Trump “America’s Hitler.”  Indeed, we have a vast catalog of Vance quotes lambasting Trump. Stories detailing the ripostes are forthcoming, but include such gems as, “a lot of people think Trump is just the first to appeal to the racism and xenophobia that were already there, but I think he’s making the problem worse," and, ”[Trump] is ultimately a destructive force." But there is nothing Trump loves more than a former enemy bending the knee—and Vance has done so with extreme relish and obsequiousness.  So what does Vance bring to the ticket? 

He can’t deliver the base any more effectively than Trump can. Electorally, he dramatically underperformed in his Senate race, winning by just 6 percentage points in 2022. His Republican predecessor, Sen. Rob Portman, won it by 21 points in 2016. (Trump won Ohio by 8 points in 2020 with a presidential-year electorate.) Vance was a disastrous candidate and hopeless fundraiser, forcing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to spend $32 million to save Vance’s ass. That was money that could have been spent against Democratic opponents including Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia, Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, or John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. All four won by less than 5 points, and with that, Democrats held on to the Senate.  It figures that Trump would pick Vance, and not an actual winner. Trump rarely associates with competent, effective people. 

And despite Vance’s past criticism of Trump, his record is everything Democrats could wish to run against, including directly thanking the authors of Project 2025, the extremist blueprint for Trump’s next term in office.  Put another way, Trump needs all the help he can get to expand his base. By choosing Vance, he specifically demonstrated that he has no interest in doing that. 

The pick of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance to join Donald Trump on the ticket was all about doubling down on the MAGA base with no intent to reach out to swing voters, disillusioned Ds, and Trump-skeptical Rs. If Trump were serious about reaching beyond his base, then he would have picked either Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, or Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

This may be the pick that dooms Trump’s chances to win again.

See Also:

Wake Up To Politics: Trump’s confidence play