#notintendedtobeafactualstatement

While the functionally useless political press was breathlessly repeating the pet-eating lie, and chin-scratching thoughtfully about whether it would alter the horserace, it took independent journalism site to track down the origin of that blood libel to a couple of Karens on Facebook in Springfield, Ohio: (via LGM)

NewsGuard identified and tracked down the two people central to the claim: Erika Lee, the Springfield resident who wrote the original Facebook post, and Kimberly Newton, the neighbor who had provided her with a third-hand account of the rumor, making Lee’s social media post a fourth-hand account: the alleged acquaintance/cat owner; Newton’s friend; Newton; and Lee, who posted it on Facebook.

In exclusive interviews, NewsGuard spoke both with Lee, a 35-year-old hardware store worker who has lived in Springfield for four years, and Newton, her neighbor and a 12-year resident of Springfield. The interviews reveal just how flimsy and unsubstantiated the rumor was from the beginning — based entirely on third hand hearsay. Yet it quickly gained traction and, remarkably, found its way to Trump’s lips on a national stage.

“I’m not sure I’m the most credible source because I don’t actually know the person who lost the cat,” Newton said about the rumor she had passed on to her neighbor, Lee, the Facebook poster. Newton explained to NewsGuard that the cat owner was “an acquaintance of a friend” and that she heard about the supposed incident from that friend, who, in turn, learned about it from “a source that she had.” Newton added: “I don’t have any proof.”

That adds up to three people with no firsthand knowledge of the allegedly victimized cat: Newton’s “friend,” Newton, and then her neighbor Lee. Or perhaps it’s four people if we count the “source” that Newton says her “friend” relied on.

Lee says she’s a “Democrat who voted for Trump”, because of course she is, and also shared this:

“I think it was two years ago now, I went to the [Bureau of Motor Vehicles] to renew my license or my tags. I can’t remember, but I was sitting in the BMV, and the only way I know to describe it is I felt like … I was transported, because all around me it was people talking a different language. … I felt like I was the minority,” she said.

There we have it.  Anyway, why does Lee even have a job in a hardware store in Springfield?  Because of Haitians.  The town was in the post-industrial death spiral until immigrants showed up to do jobs that locals wouldn’t or couldn’t do:

When Haitian immigrants began trickling into Springfield to work in local produce packaging and machining factories in 2017, some thought the new residents could help the city regain its former vigor as a once-thriving manufacturing hub. Once home to major agricultural machinery companies in the mid-20th century, Springfield has lost a quarter of its population since the 1960s.

[…] Haitians and immigrants from Central American countries have been in high demand at Springfield’s Dole Fresh Vegetables – where they’ve been hired to clean and package produce – and at automotive machining plants whose owners were desperate for workers due to a labor shortage in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The vast majority of Haitians are legal immigrants because they’ve received a temporary, renewable 18-month permit to live in the US.

There are legitimate issues in a town of 60,000 when it tries to absorb 15,000 immigrants — schools and healthcare are stretched, and housing is scarce. Medicaid rolls, for example, have swelled, probably because the jobs the Haitians are taking don’t pay a living wage.  But is it better to have a dying town full of desperation and sadness, or a growing town that’s struggling to incorporate hard-working immigrants trying to make a better life for themselves?

I really hope this issue comes up at the Vance/Walz debate, because the racism that Trump and JD are tapping ignores the fact that immigration has revitalized small towns across the midwest.  Look at any town that has a plant with jobs no white person wants (like meat packing), and you’ll find immigrant communities.  Here’s a great example in the tiny town of Worthington, MN, in Tim Walz’ district.  And just look at this (via Jeff T.)

I don’t know how you do dozens of Cletus safaris and miss the biggest story of the last few decades in the small-town midwest:  immigrants are saving those areas because they’re a great workforce that wants to share in American prosperity.  I guess the intrepid DC reporters missed that fact because the immigrants are just quietly doing their jobs, while the Karens are making up stories on Facebook.

Entitled Idiots Who Should Be Thanking Immigrants Instead Spreading HorseshitPost + Comments (219)