By now, many of you have read about Kimberly Burrell, the Philadelphia mother who lost her son, Daryl Pray, Jr., to gun violence in 2009. The 53 yr. old paralegal has since moved to Delaware, but she continues to play an active role in advocacy against the firearm epidemic. During a recent interview about the issue on MSNBC, Burrell became rather emotional while discussing the death of her son. At one point, however, the interviewer switched to an entirely different subject – inflation – that was intended for broadcast for a separate program on the economy. Restoration PAC picked up Burrell’s responses about inflation and conflated them with her emotions about gun violence in a 30 second commercial supporting Donald Trump for President. Restoration PAC thus created a Frankenstein monster out of Burrell’s interview to make it seem that this Kamala Harris supporter opposed “Bidenomics” and by extension, Harris. But that was not even the sickest irony about the commercial. Restoration PAC is funded primarily by Richard Uihlein, who has a particular interest in candidates who support lifting restrictions on assault weapons - the very position that Kimberly Burrell opposes. Burrell’s attempts to stop the ads have fallen on deaf ears – both by the Restoration PAC and the Trump campaign.
MAGA Republicans have become quite adept at using old fashioned PhotoShop to accomplish many of the things that deepfakes can do, at a fraction of the cost. But their depravity doesn’t stop with optical illusion. Sheila Armstrong, a Democrat turned MAGA-Republican, asked Mike Sfida, the manager of Mike’s Steaks in North Philadelphia, whether her non-profit, Cooking4Autism, could host an event at the cheesesteak shop for autism awareness. Sfida’s niece and nephew have autism, so he welcomed Armstrong’s proposal with open arms. But the autism event turned out to be a photo op for Dave McCormick, where autism was mentioned once the entire time. Sfida, like Kimberly Burrell, became a victim of a MAGA scam.
Of course, candidates themselves can also be victimized by untruths. That appears to be the modus operandi of House Freedom Action, an arm of the House Freedom Caucus. The PAC ran a 15-second ad, which accuses Janelle Stelson – Congressman Scott Perry’s opponent in this year’s election - of intending to use taxpayer money to “fund sex-change operations for prisoners, illegal aliens, and even minor children.” According to Alfred Lubrano of the Inquirer, the paper’s investigation of Stelson’s remarks found nothing to back up the ad’s assertions, and House Freedom Action refused to reply to the Inquirer’s inquiries.
Not that Scott Perry needs any help when it comes to lying to the public. In July, Perry gave a detailed rundown on Project 2025 to conservative radio show host Chris Stigall, explaining that it is “a coalition of different organizations that are … trying to be prepared for a future Trump presidency.” Perry added that “These people on the left are scared to death that there actually could be some accountability, and that they’re not going to be able to just sit in there and promote their leftist agenda and say, ‘Oh, Mr. President, we don’t work for you. We’re just going to wait you out for four years and we’re going to continue to march towards communism…They’re scared to death that there’s actually a plan, and that the right is preparing to remove them from the halls of power and get rid of their agenda and stop their agenda…’”
But a month later, at a town hall, Perry denied knowing much about Project 2025, claiming “I haven’t read through it…I mean, I’ve seen the cover of maybe the first page or something.,,I don’t even know how many pages it is…I think it’s fairly voluminous.”
Such lies have certainly been bolstered by the comments and actions by the top of the MAGA ticket. At the Vice-Presidential debate, J.D. Vance claimed that “censor[ing] people who engage in misinformation…[is]… a bigger threat to democracy than anything we’ve seen in the last four years or 40 years,” while his running mate approved of unjustifiable arrests of journalists in 2020.
We need to fight these minions of darkness with light, and we are coming down to the wire. We only have a few more weeks to keep the forces of evil at bay. Here are some ways that you can make a difference.
Canvass: Saturday, October 19 - Canvassers will be campaigning for Anna Payne and Ashley Ehasz. Anna is running for Pennsylvania House District 142 in Bucks County, and she has been endorsed by the Sierra Club, the Transport Workers Union, and Planned Parenthood. The canvass starts at 11am. Ashely is running against Brian Fitzpatrick for U.S. Congress in Bucks County, and she has been endorsed by the Sierra Club, Moms Demand Action, and Planned Parenthood. There is a carpool that leaves from High Point Allen Lane at 10am. You can sign up here.
Phone Bank: Phone bank for Jim Wertz, on Wednesday, 5 – 7. Jim is a teacher, who believes that we need to defend democracy, protect abortion, respect workers’ rights, and fund education. In addition to incumbent Dan Laughlin’s dubious self-promotion as a champion of public education, he has also signed a letter in support of the Texas lawsuit against Pennsylvania’s 2020 election. And, Conservation Voters gave Laughlin a 0% rating in its most recent report card. Need any other reasons to support Jim? You can sign up here to phone bank for him.
Contributions: You may not have Jeffrey Yass’s money, but your contributions can go a long way toward electing good candidates to office in the state. Below are the some of the best ways that you can make those sound political investments.
US Senate | PA House Reps | PA Senators | U.S. Congress | State Row Offices |
Eugene Depasquale (Attorney General) | ||||
| Malcolm Kenyatta (Auditor General) | |||
| Erin McClelland (Treasurer) | |||
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Last Laugh: Hopefully you will find this video amusing, and you may want to share it while you are busy campaigning. Just make sure to tell people to place the smaller envelope provided in the larger one. It is not specified in the video.
Thanks,
Coleman
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