September 13, 1858 A group of the citizens of Oberlin, Ohio, stopped Kentucky slavecatchers from kidnapping John Price, a black man. Shakespeare Boynton, son of a wealthy landowner had lured Price with the promise of work. Oberlinians, black and white, from town and from the local College, pursued the kidnappers to nearby Wellington at word of his abduction. These were twenty of the thirty-seven citizens from Oberlin and Wellington who were charged with breaking the law by helping John Price escape from slave catchers in the fall of 1858. The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue and subsequent trial caught the eye of the nation as escalating tensions over slavery raised the prospect of civil war The group, led by Charles Langston, James M. Fitch, bookseller and superintendent of the Oberlin Sunday School, and John Watson, a grocer, wanted to proceed nonviolently, but when the Kentuckians refused to surrender Price, the response was “we will have him anyhow.” They rushed the door guards of the Inn and theology student Richard Winsor took Price to safety, hidden for a time in the home of Oberlin College President James Fairchild, later helped across the Canadian border to freedom. The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue
September 13, 1961 Bertrand Russell, aged 89, and 32 others were arrested during a major demonstration against nuclear weapons in Trafalgar Square, London.
September 13, 1971 President Richard Nixon, speaking to his Chief of Staff Robert Haldeman, was recorded on the White House’s taping system saying: “Now here’s the point, Bob. Please get me the names of the Jews. You know, the big Jewish contributors to the Democrats. Could we please investigate some of the cocksuckers?” Pres. Richard Nixon (L) with Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman, advisor John Ehrlichman (R) with Sec. of State (standing) Henry Kissinger listen to The Smoking Gun:
September 13, 1982 The European Parliament voted to phase out promotion and advertising of war toys throughout the 25 countries of the European Union (formerly European Economic Community).
September 13, 1983 The first group from Peace Brigades International (PBI) arrived in Guatemala to provide unarmed and nonviolent witness protection for indigenous leaders. Following decades of severe repression of native ethnic groups by the unelected military government, the PBI team accompanied the Mutual Support Group (GAM in Spanish) of Families of the Disappeared, the first human rights group to emerge from the terror and survive. PBI vision and mission
September 13, 1993 The Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat, shook hands before cheering crowds on the White House lawn in Washington after signing an accord establishing limited Palestinian autonomy. Read more
In the flurry of post-debate spin and endorsements you may have missed what is, to my eye, one of the most disgusting things a man has ever said to a woman.
Despite a dominant performance by Vice President Harris followed by the ringing endorsement of Taylor Swift to her 283 million Instagram followers, we were quickly reminded that misogyny will always try to win the day. Elon Musk, a scumbag who needs no introduction, took to his cesspool of a platform in the moments following Swift’s post in an attempt to put her in her place.
(The tweet embed code doesn’t work here; I’m not on Twitter, so I can’t do much. You can see it on Marisa’s page, linked below, or I transcribed it; it is from Mr. Musk, who says, “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life” )
Understanding these 17 words requires a bit of context which I’m loath to repeat but feel duty-bound to explain. (Swift has not made any public comment regarding the tweet so far.)
First, let’s look at Swift’s endorsement of the Harris/Walz campaign. After explaining her process of researching and watching the presidential debate, she wrote:
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.
She then reminded people to register to vote and to vote early if possible, providing links to resources in her Instagram story. And she signed it “With love and hope, Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.” This was, of course, a reference to Trump’s veep candidate JD Vance saying the Democratic party is run by these sorts of women—meaning they couldn’t possibly care about the future of [white] children in this country.
Swift’s endorsement was a seminal moment in the too-close-for-comfort-and-sanity race between Harris and Trump, and one many have been breathlessly waiting for. While a Swift endorsement doesn’t mean everything, it certainly means something to a lot of people: In the 24 hours following her post, 406,000 people had visited Vote.gov via Swift’s custom link.
Now let’s break down Musk’s disgusting tweet piece by piece:
“Fine Taylor”
Right off the bat, I’m pissed. The Taylor in question is obviously Swift, arguably the most famous celebrity in the world. She’s an artist, a brand and an economy all at once. I may not be a Swiftie but I’ll be damned if the most divorced man of all time doesn’t show her a little respect. You’re not on a first name basis with her, you creep. She does not know you. But we’ll get back to that later.
“you win”
Winning implies that Swift willingly entered into some sort of bet or game with Musk, one in which he’s been forced to concede. As far as we know, Swift and Musk have never communicated in any capacity. In fact, as one Twitter user pointed out, Musk has replied to her a number of times over the years to no avail. Nevertheless, he persisted.
“I will give you a child”
This is where things get really dark. As established in the first two points, these two people do not know each other. Yet Musk is offering to impregnate Swift which, again, is not something she has ever expressed wanting. In fact, impregnating someone against their will is a heinous crime.
Musk has long shown that the rules don’t apply to him, and so far he’s right. From tanking the value of every company he’s touched to saying heinous things about immigrants, he remains a free man and a billionaire with no consequences to speak of. He’s the father of at least 12 children with at least three women, one of whom is an executive at Neuralink, his company that creates chips to be implanted in the brains of humans.
(There is a tweet here on the page; the embed code doesn’t work. See below, or here it is transcribed. “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.” )
He quite literally thinks spreading his seed will save humanity, and Musk thinks he’d be doing Swift a favor—saving her life and giving it meaning, even!—by getting her pregnant. For any man to presume such a thing is vile; for a deadbeat dad with a white supremacy problem, it’s unconscionable.
“and guard your cats with my life”
As if being a predatory misogynist wasn’t enough, Musk decided to throw in some casual racism which also served as a callback to one of Trump’s most unhinged moments in the debate. Trump, echoing claims first trumpeted by Vance, furthered the total and complete lie that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating white people’s pets. It started with an accident last year wherein a Haitian migrant drove into a school bus and killed an 11-year-old white boy, sparking a racist backlash against the migrant community that has rapidly grown in Springfield since 2020. The boy’s parents have told Trump and Vance to stop using their son to spread “incessant hate.”
In Musk’s telling, not only does Swift need to be impregnated to fight against a non-existent population crisis, but her beloved pet cats need protection from the non-existent cat-hungry migrants.
Dave Rubin, a far-right media personality who works for Tenet Media (the company that it was revealed unwittingly worked for the Russian government) managed to somehow take Musk’s threat a step further.
(The tweet embed code doesn’t work. It’s awful, but transcribed, it says, “Dave Rubin asks Taylor Swift to reconsider her endorsement: ‘Taylor Swift, you are a young pretty girl, do you know what the gang members from Venezuela do to young pretty girls? It ain’t pretty!'”. Or, go to Marisa’s page to read; it’s all there.)
The mention of Venezuela was a reference to another anti-immigrant remark Trump made during the debate. Here Rubin deftly combines racism with a rape fantasy, though a different one than Musk had in mind. These are the minds of deeply troubled men.
Following Musk’s post, his estranged daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson bravely posted on Threads about it.
Wilson has recently started speaking out against her father who claimed his child was, in his view, “dead, killed by the woke mind virus,” because she’s transgender. In her first-ever public interview, Wilson told NBC News of Musk in late July, “He was cold. He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic.”
That narcissism reared its ugly head this week, making even his most fervent supporters uneasy.
While far right zealots have the luxury of laughing off Trump, Vance and Musk’s cruelty, the migrant community in Springfield remains at active risk. On Thursday multiple city buildings and schools were forced to shut down after receiving a bomb threat. The Haitian Times reports that some families have been afraid to send their kids to school since they became caught in the racist crosshairs, with cars being vandalized and Haitian residents considering moving elsewhere. This is all despite the fact that, as a PBS Newshour report demonstrated, Springfield’s businesses are thriving thanks to the town’s newest residents.
Meanwhile, the childless cat (and dog) ladies are assembling: From Swift to Stevie Nicks, Linda Rondsadt and Aubrey Plaza, famous women are using their platforms to tell the wannabe dictators of the Republican ticket that they have no control over us or our bodies. Not now, not ever.
And in the coming days as conservatives continue to direct hate at immigrants in Springfield and beyond, it’s incumbent upon those with large followings to stand in solidarity with them—because we’re all fighting the same monsters.
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