October 6th, 2024.

This morning began with a CNN headline story by fact-chequer Daniel Dale,

titled Six Days of Trump Lies About the Hurricane Helene response.

Dale noted that Republican nominee for President Donald Trump has been

one of the chief sources of the disinformation that has badly hampered

recovery efforts. Trump has claimed that the federal government is ignoring the storm's victims,

especially ones in Republican areas, and that the government is handing out only

$750 in aid.

In fact, the initial emergency payment for food and groceries is $750.

But there are multiple grants available for home rebuilding up to a total of $42,500, the upper limit set by Congress.

He has also claimed, falsely, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is out of money to help because the administration

spent all its money on Ukraine and undocumented immigrants.

Trump's lies are not errors.

They are part of a well documented strategy

to overturn democracy by using modern media

to create a false political world.

Voters begin to base their political world. Voters begin to base their political decisions on that

fake image rather than on reality and are manipulated into giving up

control of their government to an authoritarian.

Russian political theorists who were key to the rise of Russian President Vladimir Putin

after the collapse of the Soviet Union

called this manipulation political technology.

...