The latest Heather Cox Richardson column is a compendium of chaos. I will just summarize.
1. Tennessee Repub. leader says Biden "finally" approved Tennessee's state of emergency request. Tennessee was later than other states in requesting same--others did so before hurricane actually hit, Tennessee waited for flash flooding to actually occur . However, the Governor had already declared Sept. 27 a "a voluntary day of prayer and fasting."
2. Republicans are taking credit for capping the cost of insulin to users at $35/month, calling the Democratic claims of doing this a lie. Trump's Republicans did a temporary, voluntary cap, and all the Republicans voted against the Biden Inflation Reduction Act, which made the $35 cap a requirement.
3. Trump assures women "I want to be your protector." He says that if he's back in office women "will be happy, healthy, confident, and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion." Meanwhile, women are dying from pregnancy complications when doctors, due to vague or draconian abortion laws passed in some states, refuse or delay emergency care. Republican advertisements, using the images of some of the dead women, blame these cases on misinformation from pro-choice activists.
4. A Republican congressional candidate is unmarried and childless, but uses photos in his campaign of him posed with a woman and children. They are a friend's family.
5. Trump has lied to say that Kamala Harris has let 13,000 or 14,000 convicted murderers enter the US in the past three years. (First, I'll note that as Vice President, Kamala Harris signs no laws and issues no orders.) But Trump says the murderers "freely and openly roam our country." Elon Musk says "True." CNN identifies the government data that is the apparent basis of this lie: lists of persons over the past 40 years who committed crimes while in the US, and are either still incarcerated for them, or who served their terms and were released, but cannot be deported because their country or origin will not accept them. The last group is monitored.
6. A woman in Philadelphia reports receiving an official-looking letter from the "Pennsylvania Congressional Office of Immigration Affairs," an entity that does not exist. It said she was expected to provide living space to five migrants, under a program "written into Law by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris." There is of course no such program. I'll again note that Vice Presidents don't write anything into law. Even the President doesn't directly write laws.
7. Trump, who recently referred to Vice President Harris as "mentally disabled," said in Erie Pennsylvania Sunday that crime would end "if you had one really violent day... One rough hour. And I mean real rough. The word would get out and it would end immediately."
8. Trump's anti-immigrant attacks compare directly to those employed by Victor Orban, who then "took control of Hungary, undermined its democracy, and set himself up as dictator." Project 2025's originator, the Heritage Foundation, has ties to Orban's Danube Institute, and the plan envisions similar actions to solidify right-wing takeovers of all branches of government, and other social institutions, setting up an all-powerful 'unified executive." Despite rhetorical attempts to distance himself from Project 2025, Trumps echos it in promises to replace civil servants with loyalists and to get rid of the Department of Education.
9. Vance in 2021 said in an interview that all social institutions were dominated by liberals, and that "to effect real change in the country, it will require us to completely replace the existing ruling class with another ruling class." He called for their "overthrow," saying "We need to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power."
10. A large federal effort involving many agencies has been launched to provide hurricane relief. Vice President Harris says "we will stand with these communities as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild."
11. VP candidate JD Vance has called for cutting funding for public education. He was speaking Saturday at an event of the New Apostolic Reformation movement, which seeks outright religious rule. It's leader, Lance Wallnau, accuses Kamala Harris of practicing witchcraft.
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