The Prelude to Dangerous Days

Update: Thank you again, Batocchio, for including my blog at Crooks & Liars' Mike's Blog Round-Up. To everyone out there, get the vote out for Harris/Walz to make sure trump and his ilk are driven out of office everywhere! 

I blogged earlier about how trump's - and along with him the Republican Party's - constant lying about what's happening in the United States - highlighted by the continual fearmongering over immigrants - led to JD Vance and his buddies falsely accusing Haitian immigrants of "stealing and eating our pet cats." I posted that just before the big debate between donald trump and Kamala Harris - which I didn't watch because I don't wanna get more riled up than I am - and during that debate trump doubled down on the accusations towards Haitians being "pet-eating monsters".

These falsehoods - attacking an ethnic group in our own backyard of criminal acts, a blood libel for all intents - are meant to do one thing: Stir up trump's angry immigrant-hating voter base of MAGA faithful to believe the absolute worst to the point they will take action "to defend" whatever nationalist ideal is in their heads... by attacking those "inhuman Others" through threats and violence.

We're seeing that in the days after trump's agitating outbursts (pushed along by his follow-up media appearances repeating his big lies), as the city of Springfield Ohio - where the rumors began - began reporting a series of bomb threats aimed at the local government offices, and then at the local schools, and today at the local hospitals (via Edward Helmore at the Guardian US).

Two hospitals in Springfield, Ohio, were sent into lockdown after bomb threats, police said Saturday, marking the fourth such case in as many days that appears linked to false claims circulating among the far right that Haitian immigrants there are eating domestic pets and wildlife...

Kettering Health Springfield was one of the medical facilities targeted, with officials later saying they found nothing suspicious during a search. Another hospital, Mercy Health’s Springfield regional medical center, received a similar threat.

A spokesperson with Mercy Health said the hospital has continued to operate and thanked Springfield police as well as hospital staff “for their swift, efficient and caring response”.

The bomb threats Saturday came after others had been called in to government buildings Thursday, forcing their closure and causing local schools to be evacuated.

“We recognize that the past few days have been particularly challenging for everyone in our community,” Springfield police said in a statement. Police added “we remain fully committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of each and every person”...

You will notice the threats are aimed at public places, where the most vulnerable of the citizenry would be especially the schools and hospitals. These hate-filled cowards want those innocent civilians to cower in fear and avoid any incoming conflict (especially as Election Day nears).

Today is Saturday. Tomorrow is Sunday. For most Christians, that's Church Day. Supposed to be the day to pray to an Almighty, and seek salvation and forgiveness and peace of mind. I guarantee you these MAGA terrorists are going to threaten at least one church (arguably whichever church has the most Haitian immigrants in the congregation) just to satisfy their dark, rage-driven demons.

All of this is happening to a small town, no different than the hundreds that dot the American landscape. Springfield is on the outskirts of Dayton, and a serious drive away from the major metros of Cincinnati and Columbus. It's one of those places where the downtown has at best one five-story building, and the rest small businesses selling antiques or housing local eateries. It's small enough that everybody kind of knows everybody else, their kids all go to the same schools, where the harvest festivals have the best pies, and they'll have their chairs lined up along Main Street a day in advance for the annual Christmas parade because nobody will vandalize or steal them. The idealized small town Eagleland of American mythos that the Beltway Media keeps looking for.

It's a place that was also dying through the steady drain of the younger generations moving on to college and then moving away to bigger jobs closer to the big cities like Cincy. The influx of Haitian refugees since 2017 to work the local factories had been an actual boon... and proof that trump and his fellow anti-immigrant haters in the Republican ranks are wrong about demonizing immigrants and denying their value as new incoming citizens. In that, you can see why trump jumped on this lie and ran with it: trump cannot abide the reality that his anti-immigrant world-view doesn't fit the facts.

There's another, darker reason trump is pushing his false narrative: he's hoping for violence to erupt in Springfield, triggering and tempting his MAGA base to cross the line with his blessing. This is part of trump's repertoire since he took over the national stage in 2015: Either insinuating - or outright stating - that those who oppose him and his MAGA base should be arrested, shot, and/or killed. There's evidence he talked to his aides about okaying law enforcement to shoot the George Floyd protestors in 2020. He cheered on the violence towards protesters in Portland Oregon and other cities. 

The observation gained by trump's constant calls for his followers to "show up, be wild" is that he wants confrontation between the Far Right and the rest of the nation. He wants more Charlottesvilles, trump wants more moments where his extremists have free reign to attack the Left-leaning counter-protests, and induce terror in average Americans so that they dare not question him or his grabs for power and money. trump believes he can profit from the chaos spurred by street fights sparked by the Nazis and extremists that back him, and that when the blood starts flowing the rest of White America - who are not as to-the-bone racist as he is, but still driven by certain prejudices - will panic and side with him and the Republicans in the coming battle.

In short: trump wants his goddamned race war because he believes it will help him win cheat his way back into the White House.

Even though he had those conditions in 2020 and still lost to Joe Biden by 7 million votes and a strong Electoral College result even in states - like Oregon, Pennsylvania, Minnesota - that were rocked by such violence anyway.

trump's not going to get the results he likes, because it's already out there that the ones instigating the violence towards Springfield - not just the Haitians but everyone there - are trump and Vance and their fellow hate-filled Republicans. If anybody suffers or dies as the escalation worsens, the blame is going right towards him no matter how much blame-shifting and gaslighting he attempts.

The sad thing is the way things are going, violence is now a certainty. Someone's going to get hurt, and I feel bad for Springfield... and for all the other towns that trump's violent rhetoric will attack next as his desperation increases.

For the LOVE OF GOD and America and Mom and Apple Pie, stop voting for Republicans. Their cruelty and violence towards fellow Americans - towards our own families and neighbors - should not be ignored and should not be rewarded.