Many of you know my day job is running a technology PR firm that specializes in cybersecurity. When we pitch new clients — often start-ups — our reputation with the journalists we work with makes the agency a trusted resource. Getting press for large companies isn’t hard — because they’re huge firms — but managing expectations of coverage is the challenge. For a start-up. just getting attention is way more difficult. Over 21 years, we’ve worked with serial entrepreners two, three, and four times and we’re about to begin our fifth engagement with one exceptional chief marketing officer. So it’s through this lens of reputation management where the press secretary and comms office at the White House touts transparency but never admits the lies.
The most transparent administration in history is three weeks overdue in releasing the Epstein files. A right-click/save as a new file on heavily redacted documents lets you remove the black redaction. When will all these documents be released? Who knows. But last night’s distraction was a “Tweet” from the president using an Executive Order to halt mail-in voting. The president says we’re the only nation in the world that uses mail-in ballots. That’s not true. Many countries around the world allow some form of postal voting, with at least 34 countries or territories permitting it for in-country voters according to 2024 data from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), a global intergovernmental organization that tracks electoral practices.
Of these:
– About 12 countries allow **all voters** to vote by mail (often on demand or without needing an excuse).
– The rest allow it for specific groups (e.g., those abroad, disabled, hospitalized, or in remote areas).
Examples of Countries with Mail-in Voting
– **Full access for all voters** — Canada, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Poland, Luxembourg, Iceland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, South Korea, Denmark, and Greece.
– **Limited access** — Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, France (for some cases), and Pakistan.
Trump claims states manage voting under the direction of the Federal Government; that’s not true either. Republicans think any election they lose must be fraudulent; that’s denial.
Let’s pivot to Greenland, which Trump wants to acquire (along with Canada, the Panama Canal, and possibly Cuba..Hitler only wanted all of Europe after all). In 1916-17, the United States recognized Denmark’s sovereignty over all of Greenland in exchange for Denmark selling the Danish West Indies (which is now U.S. Virgin Islands). A military invasion of the US into Greenland is going to cause an actual shitshow with NATO. How would this be different than the Nazi’s marching across Europe in 1939-1942? We have brown people in concentration camps now.
Trump claiming George Soros is funding protests and that DoJ is going to investiagte his network is remarkable considering Republicans have the vast fortune of Elon Musk at their disposal — Musk’s SpaceX and Starlink contracts with the Feds be damned.
If you missed this story in The Atlantic, take a read. When offering False statistics, Trump like to use 92 percent; repeatedly. Will the most transparent press office ever correct the record. They won’t.
This all brings me to the ICE assassination of a 37 year old Mom in the Twin Cities. Republicans insist she used her car as a weapon and the agent who shot three times was sruck by the vehicle. The NY Times and Washington Post analyzed every available video and proved the agent was not hit. His use of a weapon to fire on an escaping car violating DHS/ICE policy and his poor training. Republicans see a completely different outcome. Forget that the agent called her a “fucking bitch” after shooting and was whisked away minutes after shooting. Hard to put lipstick on this pig.
It’s high time for Congressional Democrats in the House and Senate launch a fact check briefing after evey press call run by Caroline Levitt. And when her time in Trump land is done, let’s see which company hires a proven liar.
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