One of these weeks, I’m going to make a plan for what I’m going to talk about and then carry it out. Ever since the conventions ended, I’ve been planning to write a state-of-the-race article. But something else always comes up: Trump desecrates Arlington National Cemetery, or Georgia election officials lay the groundwork for another January 6, or something.
This week, an apparent Trump assassination attempt broke too late for me to say anything substantive about it, but the eating-dogs-and-cats thing was just impossible to ignore. So I’ll just have to double up: the state-of-the-race post will come out later this morning, maybe around 11 EDT.
But I also found an interesting slant on the Springfield dogs-and-cats story: The Bug-Eyed and Shameless blog draws a parallel to the Irish Fright of 1688, when tens of thousands of Englishmen became convinced that rogue Irish troops from the British army were marauding through England, destroying everything in their path. Spontaneous militias barricaded bridges and crossroads, waiting for rampaging Irishmen who only existed in their imaginations.
It turns out that disinformation can spread and start a panic even without the internet.
Anyway, I think there’s a lot to be learned from Americans’ propensity to believe bizarre and scary things about non-White immigrants. I’ll collect some in “Lessons from the Haitian Fright”. I’ll try to get it out soon. The state-of-the-race article will follow, and then the weekly summary, which will review the Harris-Trump debate, what little we know about the shots fired in Trump’s vicinity, the Laura Loomer thing, and a few other notes. I’m aiming to have that out by noon, but it may run later.
The Weekly Sift 
Comments
I hope, when you write about the cats and dogs things, you mention the incredible cruelty shown by JD Vance towards those suffering immigrants and perhaps how he squares those lies with his new-found Catholicism.
Your articles are wonderful; thanks for all the great work. About JD Vance, did you see this? “JD Vance, asked on CNN about the false rumors that Haitian immigrants were eating pets, said he was willing ‘to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention.'”
He isn’t getting the media to pay attention to the actual problems of people in Ohio, he’s getting people to call in bomb threats to schools and government offices.
It’s the whole caravan BS all over again. I can’t even remember what year that was now, with all the other BS. As soon as the election was over, we stopped hearing about it.
You said this: “I have no idea what Elon could have been thinking” when he tweeted to Taylor Swift “I will give you a child.” Here’s what he was thinking.
That’s an uppity woman. I’ll cut her back down to size. She should not be allowed to assume she has any other power than in her sexiness. I can remind her and my 183 million followers that when a powerful man like me considers her, all he thinks about is how great it would be to own her sexually. And nothing beyond that. So, Taylor, get off this territory I own, where I and my male friends tell everyone what their politics should be, because you don’t belong here. Get back to the bedrooms in our minds.
It was not a compliment. It’s toxic male bullshit. And it should be called out for what it is. A power put-down.